vankaaya Pachipulusu / Roasted Egg plant stew

This is a special variety of rasam / stew prepared especially in Andhra pradesh. Roasted and mashed brinjals are combined with raw tamarind, jaggery, chopped onions, green chillis and seasoned with aromatic spices which intensifies the flavor. This is best served with rice.

Ingredients:

Tender eggplants - 4

Oil – 2 tbsp

Onion - 1 chopped

Green chili - 2

Tamarind - 2 lemon sizes (soak it in hot water and remove the pulp)

Jagerry / sugar - 1 tsp

Salt

For seasoning -

Curry leaves - 2 strings

Mustard + Cumin - 1 tsp

Red chili - 1 or 2

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Turmeric - 1 pinch

Method:

Smear the eggplants with oil, then place them on the fire and roast them till they are charred. If you don't have gas stove then you can roast them in a preheated oven.

Remove the eggplants from the fire and allow them to cool a little bit.

Take the pulp into a bowl and mash thoroughly.

Roasted and mashed eggplant

Now to the mashed egg plant add chopped onion, chopped green chili, jaggery / sugar and the tamarind pulp. Add salt and 2 cups of water to this and stir every thing.

For the seasoning, heat a small pan with 1 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot enough add mustard , cumin and stir for a second. Add curry leaves and the red chili along with hing / asafoetida and turmeric which gives the nice aroma to the stew. Turn off the heat and quickly add the seasoning to the rasam / stew.

Note: Those who can't eat the raw onion, can stirr the chopped onion along with the seasoning, which will reduce the rawness.