Vankaya Kurma (Eggplant Kurma) -- Revisiting Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Revisiting Old Recipes
Dish: Vankaya Kurma (Eggplant in Peanut-Yogurt sauce)

I am revisiting old recipes as part of this week's Blogging marathon theme and of course I had to browse through my eggplant recipes to see what needs a face lift. This also gives me a chance to make the dish again and enjoy it. My poor husband is the victim to all of my eggplant creations. I'm a eggplant lover and I'm on a mission to convert an eggplant hater to a somewhat liker. I think he's now in at the junction where he neither likes it nor dislikes it -- so hopefully he'll get to where I want him to be pretty soon.

So browsing through the archives, I ended up on this Eggplant kurma that I posted more than 3 years ago. I am not a big fan of yogurt in curries, but I've to tell you the yogurt gives the dish tanginess and makes it absolutely delicious. I used 'labneh'-- a Turkish style thick cream sort of yogurt that is almost like Greek yogurt and I loved the results. I was skeptical if my husband would find out the presence of yogurt (which he also dislikes with a passion), but labneh didn't have the smell that Indian yogurt has and it was virtually undetectable.
I'm so happy I remade this dish -- it is a great side dish to plain or flavored rice, rotis or naans or just about. I can probably just eat it by the spoonfuls :-)

Ingredients:

Eggplants – 10-12, medium size

Onion – 2 medium, chopped

Grated dry coconut – 2tbsp

Roasted Peanuts – 3tbsp

Sesame seeds – 1tbsp

Ground coriander – 1 tbsp

Ground Cumin – ½ tsp

Ground fenugreek – ¼ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Ginger + garlic paste – 1tsp

Red chili powder – 2tsp (or to taste)

Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

Fenugreek seeds (Menthulu) – a few

Curry leaves – 6-8

Salt – to taste

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup, roughly chopped

Yogurt – ½ cup

Method:

• With the crown portion of the eggplant still intact, slit them into 4 pieces or if you are like chop the crown out and cut eggplant into 4 separate wedges.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan and fry onions until browned and slightly caramelized. Remove and keep aside.
• Fry sesame seeds until light brown; set aside.
• Grind peanuts, sesame seeds, grated coconut, ground coriander, cumin, fenugreek pd, yogurt, onions, turmeric, red chili pd, salt, ginger+garlic paste and coriander leaves into a smooth paste using very little water.
• Stuff the eggplants with the paste (or not if you are following my lazy advise) and save the leftover paste for later.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in the same sauté pan, add cumin & fenugreek seeds and once they start to splutter, gently slide in the stuffed eggplants (or the wedges and all of the ground paste); cover and cook on low flame.
• After the eggplants are cooked through, add the remaining masala paste mixed with ½ cup of water. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice or roti.

Lets check what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 45.