Mashed Eggplant (Brinjal) Curry

Mashed Eggplant Curry is one of the popular vegetarian dishes of India served as main course with flat bread or rice. Raw eggplant (Brinjal) is grilled over fire, and mashed after removing the burned out skin. Then it is cooked with other ingredients to form the curry. The grilling of eggplant over fire infuses a smoky flavor to the dish and adds additional taste different from normal eggplant curry.

This instructable will guide you on how to cook Mashed Eggplant Curry at your home.

The dish prepared with about 500 grams Eggplant will serve 4 to 5 people.

• Grill each and every eggplant separately over fire or charcoal till the skin is fully burned and becomes black.
• You can use your normal gas stove also. You can place more than one eggplant on the gas stove if there is enough space.
• Turn eggplant over fire from time to time so that all sides are grilled evenly
• Keep the fully grilled eggplant in a plate to cool

• Once the grilled eggplants are cooled down, remove the burned out outer skin from them. It is very easy, the skin will come off just by pressing with your fingers
• Wash the skinned eggplants in water and keep separate
• You can discard the outer skin removed from the vegetables.

• The grilled eggplant can be mashed by hand or you can use a mixer grinder to mash them
• Cut the grilled eggplants into pieces and place them in a mixer grinder jar
• Make a rough paste and keep aside

The following ingredients are required to make the dish

• 2 Medium sized onions
• 3 to 4 Tomatoes
• Few cloves of Garlic
• A lemon sized piece of Tamarind
• An inch long piece of Ginger
• A teaspoon of Mustard seeds mixed with split Black-gram lentils
• 4 to 5 dried red chilies
• A bunch of Curry leaves

• Chop onion into fine pieces and keep aside
• Dice tomatoes and keep aside
• Remove skin from Ginger and chuck garlic
• Make Ginger garlic paste using a mixer grinder and keep aside

• Place the lemon sized piece of Tamarind in warm water for about five minutes
• Firmly press the soaked tamarind piece with your fingers in water
• Filter out the tamarind juice and discard the remains

• Place a frying pan over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
• Once the oil is heated, add the Mustard seeds.
• Break the dried red chilies into pieces and add to the oil
• Add the curry leaves. Take care, the raw curry leaves will splatter in the hot oil
• Now add the onions and Ginger garlic paste to the pan

• Once the raw smell has disappeared from the mix in the pan, add diced tomatoes
• Add salt to taste and also add half a teaspoon of Asafoetida powder
• Saute till the water content evaporates from the mix

• Add the mashed eggplant to the pan and mix well
• Add the tamarind paste to the mix.
• Also add 2 cups of water to the pan as we will cook it for some more time till raw smell from the eggplant disappears

• Place a lid on the frying pan and cook till raw smell from eggplant paste disappears
• Transfer the eggplant curry to a serving pan and garnish with coriander leaves

This dish is served as main course with flat bread and rice.