One of our readers, Ms. Jayalakshmy Ramanathan, shared this recipe from her mother. I have shared this with our readers and thank Ms. Jayalakshmy for her contribution.

INGREDIENTS

Big violet coloured brinjal – 1 (Or 2 medium size) Big onion – 1 Green chillies – 3 or 4 1 small size ginger grated 1 Lijjath pappad or ambika appalam Peatnuts roasted – 1 tablespoon Tamarind – a small lemon size Asafoetida Powder – 2 pinches Turmeric Powder – 2 pinches Oil – 2 tablespoons Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon Urad dal – 1 teaspoon Coriander leaves – finely chopped -2 tablespoons Salt – 3/4 teaspoon or as per taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Follow step 2 or Step 3 to roast the brinjal. I have used step 3 as show in the picture.

2. Clean and dry the brinjal with a towel. Take a little gingelly oil on your finger and rub it on the big brinjal fully. Wrap the oil massaged brinjal with a cling wrap fully. Roast the brinjal in a microwave oven for 3 minutes, one minute for each time and give a turn to the other side of the brinjal. After roasting for 3 minutes if you see the brinjal become flat and soft, take it out from the oven. Allow it to cool. (If you skip this step, please follow next step.)

3. Apply little oil over the brinjals and roast it in a direct flame. [Hold the brinjal using a tong or insert a sharp rod (like “Vadai Kambi”) into the brinjal and rotate it over direct flame till it is fully roasted and becomes black]. The picture below shows the brinjal before and after roasting. Allow to cool and remove

the black skin.

4. Soak tamarind in hot water.

5. Grind the roasted peanuts coarsely or just pound it.

6. Chop onion, green chillies and ginger into small pieces.

7. In a kadai put a tablespoon of oil and when it is hot add asafoetida. Then add the chopped onion, green chillies and ginger and fry till the onion becomes transparent.

8. Mash the grilled brinjal and put it in a mixie. Add fried onion, green chillies, ginger and the soaked tamarind (drain the excess water). Add salt and grind it to a paste.

9. In a non-stick kadai put the remaining oil and when it is hot add mustard seeds. When it starts pop up, add urad dal and fry till it become light brown. Add the ground brinjal paste. Add turmeric powder and mix well. Keep the stove on low flame.

10. Roast the pappad in the microwave for 1 minute, giving 50 seconds for each side. Crush it into small pieces and add it to the brinjal. Add the ground peanuts and mix everything well.

11. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.The brinjal gojju goes well with Curd Rice. Also it can be served with “Rice Uppuma”, “Upma Kozhukattai” and even with idli/dosa.