Brinjal/ Vazhuthananga Theeyal

Another cherished moment for us, we are again getting a chance to do a guest post!!! This time its for none other than our dear blogger friend, who has made us feel so confident, happy and what not..with her lovely comments and whose blog with her daily ramblings(as she calls it) makes us feel so close to her. More than her recipes we have always loved to go through her quote worthy descriptions that she always adds prior to her each and every recipe. Yes, we are talking about none other than our dear Rafeeda from THE BIG SWEET TOOTH As the name of her blog so is she...a very sweeeeeet person. When Rafeeda whom we lovingly nicknamed Rafee(without her permission) asked us to do a guest post, we were very excited and happy. We were wondering what should we give her. As we were on our vacation back home in Kerala, we decided to do a Keralite dish itself. You can find our guest post for her here.

Brinjal/Vazhuthananga Theeyal
Spicy food and monsoons go hand in hand for me. Its raining cats and dogs outside, and sitting at home in the comfort of the company of your dear ones is something that keeps you warm inside. To top it, how about some spicy food from your mom's hand. Amma's food is something that is irreplaceable. I am sure this is a fact which you all will agree with me.

Here comes a typical Kerala spicy dish, which my Amma cooked for us on a heavy rainy day. The aroma of the roasted coconut and shallots made me literally drooooool; which is indeed a very beautiful smell!!

Ingredients
3 long green brinjals sliced into thin semicircles
25 shallots peeled
3 tablespoons grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 green chilli, slit into two
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 teaspoons coriander powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 garlic clove
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 gooseberry sized tamarind pulp, soak in 1 cup of warm water and extract the juice
salt as required
 4-5 tablespoons coconut oil
Method

• Heat around 4 tablespoons of oil in a kadai/cheenachatti. Add 20 shallots and fry until the shallots turn light golden. Drain from the oil and keep aside.
• To the same oil add the sliced brinjals and fry well until the brinjals turn brown in colour. Drain and keep aside.

• Heat another pan and add the coconut, fennel, green chilli, garlic, remaining shallots, few curry leaves. Dry roast on a medium low flame all these until the coconut turns golden brown in colour.
• At this stage, add the coriander powder, chili powder and roast for 2-3 minutes or until the raw smell of the the powders goes off.
• Switch off the flame. Once cooled, grind this into a smooth paste, adding enough water.

• Heat a kadai, pour the extracted tamarind juice and the grinded paste. Add 1 - 11/2 cups of water, salt and allow it to boil well.
• Once it is brought to a boil add the fried shallots and brinjal. Continue to cook until the gravy thickens.

• Switch off the flame and garnish with a sprig of curry leaves.

* You can season with mustard, red chillies, few fenugreek seeds  and curry leaves. Just splutter all of these in a little coconut oil and add it to the dish finally. Its optional. Here the seasoning was not done but still it tasted yummy. But seasoning will make the theeyal taste more yummy!!