Bharil Vaingan (Vegan Eggplant Coconut Curry)

We Konkanis love coconut, be it breakfast like GoDa Phovu or a curry like this one. The mild flavor of Udid Methi, as said in Konkani is the highlight of this eggplant curry.
This no onion garlic recipe is a tasty delight for both vegans and vegetarians.

Ingredients:
Baby Eggplants/Brinjals/Vaingan/Baingan/Vangi - 8
Grated Coconut - about 1 1/2 cup
Dry Red Chillies - 5
Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp
Tamarind - about 1/2 tsp
Jaggery/Gud/Gul - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal/Split Black Gram - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek/Methi Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida/Hing - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Oil

How to cook Eggplant Coconut Curry:

Grind coconut, dry red chilies, turmeric, tamarind, salt, jaggery to a coarse paste, adding little water. Add jaggery and tamarind to suit your taste. You can use red chili powder if red chilies are not available.
Slit the eggplants forming a '+' sign and stuff them with the ground coconut paste. Save the leftover stuffing.

Heat about 1 tsp oil in a pan. Add urad dal, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and asafetida. When mustard seeds pop, add stuffed eggplants and sauté for few minutes.
Add the leftover stuffing to the pan. Cover and cook till eggplants turn soft. Add water if required.

Serve Stuffed Brinjals Curry with rice and/or chapati.

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal) Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family. My Mom used to make this stir fry very often. Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple. I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India. Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi. I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.

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