Eggplant-Chickpea Tagine

I made this for JFI-Eggplant, but couldn’t get around posting it on time. Recipe is from my "Vegetarian" cookbook (Edited by Valerie Ferguson). Recipe takes almost an hour from start to finish, but it is worth every bit of the time and effort you put into it. Spices used make this Moroccan style stew make it taste almost like an Indian dish.

Ingredients:
Eggplant – 1 medium, chopped into bite size pieces
Zucchini – 1 medium, thicky sliced
Chickpeas – 1 16oz. can, rinsed and drained
Potatoes - 2 medium, chopped
Onions – 1 large, sliced
Garlic Cloves - 2, chopped
Dry apricots - 8 (I substituted with a tablespoon sugar)
Ground Coriander - 1tbsp
Ground cinnamon – 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 2 tsp
Chili Sauce - 1 tbsp
Tomato paste – 1 tbsp
Passata* – 2 ½ cups (I used tomato puree instead)
Water – 2/3 cup
Salt & Pepper– to taste

Method:

• Put the eggplant and zucchini in a colander, sprinkling salt over each layer. Let stand for ½ hour. Rinse very well and pat dry with paper towels.
• Preheat the broiler. Arrange the zucchini and eggplant on a baking sheet and toss in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Broil for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until tender and golden.
• Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large heavy pan and cook the onion and garlic until softened. Add the spices and stir over the heat for 1 minute.
• Add the potatoes and cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Pour in the passata, tomato paste and water and cook for 10 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken.
• Add the eggplant, zucchini, chili sauce and chickpeas. Season to taste with salt and pepper and cook, partially covered for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve with rice.
Note:

• Passata is a cooked tomato concentrate and you can find the recipe for making it here.
• Recipe also uses 2 cups Brown mushrooms. The dish turned out delicious even without the mushrooms.
• Also this recipe makes a big pot of stew, you can refrigerate it for upto a week without any problem.

Challa Ponganalu (Poha Dosa)

These dosas are fluffy, slightly tangy and extremely easy to make. I had this recipe for a while now (courtesy of our neighbor in India) and when I saw Asha’s Avalakkai dosa, I had to give it a try.

Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup
Poha (Atukulu) – ¾ cup
Buttermilk - for grinding
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Soak rice overnight. Soak poha for ½ hour.
• Grind rice and poha with buttermilk and salt to make a thin batter similar to dosa batter consistency.Cover and allow to ferment overnight or for atleast 8-10 hours.
• Make dosas on a non-stick skillet with little oil.
• Serve them hot with chutney or podi of your choice.

Nethi Beerakaya Pachadi-Silk Squash Chutney

I have never cooked with Nethi beerakaya aka Silk Squash before. Nethi beerakaya bajji (fritters) are very famous in Andhra. I bought 2 squashes from the Indian store and made pachadi with one and bajji with the other.

To make the bajjis, cut the veggie into thin circles. Dip them into bajji/ pakora batter (besan+chili powder+cumin powder+salt+water to make a thin batter) and deep fry till golden brown. Serve hot sprinkled with chaat masala along with ketchup. We gobbled down our bajjis before I could take the pictures, so all I have here is raw silk squash pieces.

Here’s the recipe for pachadi.

Ingredients:
Nethi Beerakaya – 1 medium, chopped (no need to peel, just rinse thoroughly)
Tomato – 2 medium, chopped
Tamarind pulp – 1-2 tsp
Chana dal – 1tbsp
Ural dal – 1 tbsp
Jeera – 1 tsp
Red chilies – 4
Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan; add dals, jeera, red chilies and sauté till lightly browned. Remove and keep aside.
  
• In the same pan, add chopped beerakaya pieces, tomato, cover and cook till tender. Remove from heat.
  
• Once cool enough to handle, grind the dals first to a powder, then add the veggies, tamarind pulp, salt and blend to a smooth paste.
  

I like mine a little chunky, so I didn’t blend it all the way through. Tastes great with rice/ idlis/ dosas or on sandwiches.

Here's another interesting nethi beerakaya recipe from Indira’s blog.

Tomato Rasam

This is my husband’s special tomato rasam recipe. Our dear friend V, gave instructions on phone and fortunately (for me) it turned out pretty good (in his words “restaurant style”) the first time he made it. He is very proud of his rasam and making it used to be a secret ritual for a while. But finally I coaxed him to tell me the recipe for the blog.

So here it is my husband’s very famous tomato rasam.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes – 3 medium, ripe
Tamarind pulp – 1 tsp
Rasam powder – 1 tsp (any brand, he uses MTR)
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Garlic cloves – 2
Curry leaves – 4-5
Salt – to taste
Coriander leaves – chopped for garnish

Method:

• Make a small “+” cut on the tomatoes; drop them in 1½ cups of boiling water and blanch for 4-5 minutes. Remove from water, cool, peel skin and puree in a blender.
  
• In the same water used for boiling tomatoes, add the tomato puree, tamarind paste and bring to a simmer.
  
• Add all the powders and salt.
  
• Bring to a boil; simmer on medium-high flame for 5 minutes.
  
• In a small pan, add ghee and do the popu/ tadka with mustard seeds, minced garlic, curry leaves. Add this to rasam, mix well, garnish with coriander leaves. Enjoy with rice and papad or as soup.