How To Make Eggplant In Exotic Spices

Step 1: Welcome to ShowMeTheCurry:

Hi Welcome to Show Me the Curry.com, I'm Angel and I'm Annuel and today we're making eggplant in exotic spices. Right, and it is a heavier version of a cherry bacon, which is another popular dish in India. And I just love it. I had to come up with something that I could eat on a daily basis that I would not feel guilty about. So here's what you'll need. Four long Chinese eggplant, one tablespoon oil, half teaspoon kalonji, also known as onion seeds, one teaspoon fennel seeds, half teaspoon cumin seeds, half teaspoon mustard seeds, half teaspoon tumeric powder, one teaspoon minced ginger, one teaspoon minced garlic, one fourteen (14) ounce can diced tomatoes, half teaspoon red chili powder, or to taste, salt, to taste.

Step 2: Chop eggplant:

OK, we're going to start off by chopping our eggplant. Now this is the Chinese variety. There's Japanese variety of eggplants, there's Italian eggplants, but this one works really well because first of all, this one has a lot less seeds inside, and it cooks a lot more tender than the other kinds. And you want to make sure when you're choping the eggplant that the skin is on every piece. That's because when you cook eggplants, they tend to much up and when you make sure the skin is on there, they maintain its shape. This one is a nice thin one, but for the thicker type I'm going to cut it into quarters as opposed to just halves.

Step 3: Heat oil add ingredients:

Alright, so we have a non-stick pan on medium heat going right now and we're going to add our oil in first. We're going to wait until it heats up to add the rest of the ingredients in. OK, so the oil is hot, so we're going to add in the cumin seeds, let them sizzle around. Add the mustard seeds, onion seeds, and fennel seeds. Once the mustard seeds have deformed and the cumin seeds start to sputter, you know that it's ready. You know, I didn't even know onions had seeds. (Laughter) Until recently. This is again is a favourite in your house as well as mine, so it's very good. It's great even for people who don't like eggplant, this is a sure fire win. Right, and we've had so many requests for this one. And I think I hear the mustard seeds popping, so we can go ahead and add in our turmeric power. And our ginger and garlic. The garlic. And the ginger. We'll let this cook for just thirty seconds or so. We're going to add in the can of the diced tomatoes. It just gives a wonderful flavour. And the skin is off and the colour of canned tomatoes, it goes well. It's great. But if you do want to use fresh tomatoes, you know, there's nothing like fresh. Now we're going to cook this until the water starts evaporating and the tomatoes reduce down. The oil needs to separate from the tomatoes.

Step 4: Add in eggplant:

I think it looks kind of done. And the oil is seperating to the side. So we'll go ahead and add in our eggplant now. It looks so pretty, right? Right. Give it a good mix so that all the eggplant gets all the goodness of the gravy and the tomatoes and the spices.

Step 5: Add chilli powder:

Next, we can add in our salt and our red chilli powder. Salt is to taste. That should be good. And mix well. Now we're going to cover and heat this until the eggplants start getting tender.

Step 6: Stir:

I'm going to stir this once in between. Alright, it's been about fifteen minutes, and we've stirred this in between. And it looks like it's done. You want the eggplant to be tender, but not mushy, so try not to overcook.

Step 7: Thanks for watching:

So that's all the key parts of this recipe. It's very good. So just turn it off and it's good to go. So here we have it, eggplant in exotic spices. A healthier version. Right. So join us again for another episode on show me the curry dot com, and add a hint of spi