Stuffed Baby Eggplants Curry with Peanuts

My love for eggplants is well known in my family and even among my blogging buddies (I'm sure at least 2 of them must be nodding their heads and thinking -- eggplant recipe, AGAIN.. come on Pavani :-) But I can't miss an opportunity to buy them and eat them.
Last weekend I found cute little baby eggplants at the Indian grocery, they were the perfect size to make stuffed eggplants. I bought a few, of course. 

As I was leafing through Chandra Padmanabhan's 'Dakshin', I found this easy stuffed eggplant recipe called 'Sagalay'. This peanut stuffing was a variation to a more elaborate recipe that was actually featured in the book. I already have a stuffed eggplant recipe with peanut and spices. I was in no mood to saute and grind a ton of spices for the stuffing and this 4 ingredient stuffing caught my eye right away.

All you need to do is roast peanuts and if you are (lazy) like me and have roasted unsalted peanuts in your pantry, then you are in for a luck. All you need to do is grind these already roasted peanuts with some chili powder, turmeric and salt and voila there's your simple, yet lip-smacking delicious stuffing. There's no onion, no garlic and nothing fancy about this recipe, but it still tastes amazing. Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:

Baby Eggplants - 8~10
Tomato - 2 medium, chopped

Roasted Peanuts - ¼cup
Red Chili powder - 1tsp (adjust as per taste)
Turmeric - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste
Cilantro - 2tbsp, for garnish

For Tempering:
Chana dal - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Dry red chili - 1
Curry Leaves - 8~10

Method:

• Make a “X” cut on the bottom of the eggplant, about 3/4th of the way up, making sure that the eggplant still holds together and does not become pieces. Keep aside.
• Grind roasted peanuts along with chili powder, turmeric and salt.
• Stuff the eggplant with the peanut powder. Reserve the remaining peanut powder.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a saute pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the stuffed eggplants to the pan in a single layer and sprinkle some salt. Mix once, lower the heat, cover and cook until eggplants are cooked through, about 10~12 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure eggplants cook evenly on all sides.
• Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they are mushy. Garnish with cilantro and serve with steamed rice.

Sending this over to Valli's 'Cooking with Cookbook Challenge'.