Vellore Mullu Kathirikai Serwa/Spicy Brinjal Serwa

Yumm...another brinjal delight! I love this dish !!! This dish is usually served with saffron rice, pulav or biryani. This dish is meant to be spicy to go with rice.You may reduce the heat if you think you can't take it. This recipe is inspired from one of Malar's post, But I have made a few changes to the recipe suite my palate


Ingredients:-

Masala :-
1 tsp jeera
4 peppercons
1 tsp of jeera
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp bengal gram
3 curry leaves
3 red chilli
4 peanuts


For Serwa:-
 6 brinjals with crowns, slit to make a cross at the bottom
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 medium sliced/chopped onions (thin)
2 medium sized tomatoes chopped finely
1 tsp of grated garlic
1 tsp of grated ginger
2-3 green chillies slit
3-4 tble spns of coconut milk

Method:-
Dry roast the ingredients for masala.
Grind and mix the dry masala with salt to taste.
Stuff the masala into the cross slit made in each of the brinjals.
Heat about 3 tbl spns olive/sesame/vegetable oil.
Fry the onions, ginger, garlic and chillies till the onions turn transparent.
Add turmeric powder and salt (for the gravy-be careful as some salt is already there in the masala)
Add the tomatoes, 1/3 cup of water and the rest of the dry masala. Fry well till they are cooked.
Add the brinjals and cook closed for 10 mins in low flame or till the eggplants are cooked. Stir every 4-5 minutes.
Add the coconut milk and cook open so that the water evaporates to make the serwa semi dry.
Cook in medium flame till the gravy becomes thick (the serwa should be semi-dry, not too much gravy should be there) and the oil separates.
Serve Hot

Submitting this to Vicky's event 'Side dish for chapathi'.