Brinjal Thogayal by Shripriya

Pathiya Samayal Contest Entry by Shripriya Ramakrishnan

Brinjal is one of the non-gassy vegetables that can be had without any restrictions during the postpartum period. It is one of my favorite vegetables so I prefered having it a lot of times during both of my after-delivery periods. The following is my favorite even now.

Ingredients:
1. Brinjal - 3-4
2. Black pepper - half teaspoon or Red chillies 1 or 2 based on your preference.
3. Tamarind - gooseberry sized.
4. Oil - One-two tablespoon
5. For seasoning - Mustard, urad, asafoetida, jeera, and curry leaves.
6. Salt - as needed.

Method:
1. Fry whole brinjal in a kadai with little oil. Alternatively you can microwave the brinjal and avoid too much of oil consumption.
2. Fry the black pepper/red chillies in just 1/4 teaspoon of oil.
3. Peel the brinjal skin. 
4. Grind the peeled brinjal and the black pepper/red chillies with tamarind and salt.
5. In a kadai, pour little bit of oil and season with all the items mentioned for seasoning.
6. Add the ground brinjal-black pepper/red chillies paste.
7. Fry for sometime until it thickens to desired consistency.
8. Have it with hot rice and ghee or with chappathi.

Variations: 
1. You can add garlic also in the seasoning or fry it separately and grind it with brinjal and black pepper/red chillies.
2. If you want to make it for non-pathiya samayal and want it to be little spicy, omit black pepper and add red chillies and green chillies. And after seasoning, add finely chopped onion and fry them until cooked and then add the ground paste. This will be very good with chappathis.
3. You can just fry the whole brinjals, remove the skin, mash it with a maththu, then season it with mustard, red chillies, hing, urad, and curry leaves and mix it with rice and eat. Curd also can be added to the mashed brinjal.

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