Ennai kathrikai kuzhambu recipe-Tangy tamarind based stew with stuffed baby eggplants. is one classic kuzhambu (tamarind based stew) from Tamil cuisine.On hearing the name of this kuzhambu itself people start salivating,yeah it is that tasty with small baby eggplants stuffed with fresh spice powder and also with a brilliant aroma of sesame oil.This kuzhambu was in my to do list for a very long time,in fact I have blogged a very simple version of this kuzhambu here already,but this is the actual method with all those stuffed eggplants. As I said I wanted to do this for a long time but I was kind of hesitant because this recipe calls for stuffing inside the whole eggplant,as you all know eggplants are prone to worms and I was not very comfortable doing this :(. Every time I slit open a eggplant and even if I see a small dark spot I immediately used to change the plan of preparing this kuzhambu and do some other eggplant recipe.Last week we visited our aunt's and I brought home around 30 baby eggplants from her small front yard garden :) :) :). They were so fresh and tiny and I was pretty sure they will be very clean inside too.I saved them for 3 days just to prepare this kuzhambu on weekend and I did that too :) I already knew this will a super hit and it was indeed one.We ad along with upma for breakfast and also for lunch with rice,as you all should be knowing it tasted even better during lunch.There are lots of variant for this recipe.In some places they use garlic seasoning,in some places pearl onion is used,here I am blogging a no onion-garlic recipe with asafoetida seasoning,baby eggplants at its full glory :)
Ennai kathrikai kuzhambu recipe
Star ingredient: Baby eggplant
Time:30 minutes
Serves:3
Ingredients:
10-12 baby eggplants
A small lemon sized ball of tamarind,soaked in water for 20 minutes
10-12 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek/methi/vendhayam
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (optional)
Salt
Sesame oil
For spice powder/stuffing
1 tablespoon channa dal
1 1/2tablespoons corainder seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon urad dal
4-6 dried red chillies
1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons grated coconut
Method:
For spice powder/stuffing
Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under For stuffing/spice powder,expect coconut.Once cooled grind to a coarse powder along with coconut. Set aside.
Preparing the eggplants:
1.Take the eggplants and wash them.Pat dry with a kitchen towel and remove the green stalk on the top.Now make a slit in each eggplant,one vertical and one horizontal (+ symbol).
2.Stuff each eggplant with the prepared spice powder and arrange in a plate carefully. Save the remaining spice powder
For kuzhambu:
1.Heat a kadai and add 2-3 teaspoons sesame oil to it.Once the oil is hot,temper wit mustard,methi and asafoetida.Add curry leaves and saute well
2.Add the stuffed eggplants and saute gently.Lower the flame,add turmeric powder,remaining spice powder and chilli powder ans saute well.Let it cook for 5-7 minutes,till the eggplants start to shrink
3.Extract thick juice from the soaked tamarind.Add it to the cooked eggplant.Bring to a boil.
4.Add 3 1/2 cups of water,salt and boil for 15 minutes,until the stew thickens.
5.Check for consistency,if you find it a bit watery,boil for 5 more minutes,add 1 teaspoon sesame oil and remove from flame
6.Serve hot with rice
Notes:
1.If you are not comfortable with stuffing the eggplants,you can cut into long pieces and just saute them along with the spice powder.There will be no change in taste.
2.The color of kuzhambu depends on the quality of the tamarind.If you use old tamarind you will get deep red color.You can add 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder if you prefer deep red color.