Bharwan Baingan aur Khatti dal maat ki bhaji

 The dishes I made today are among my most favourite dishes. They  say anybody you meet will either love eggplant or hate it. Its true!!! There are hardly any people I know who are just 'ok' with eggplant. And whoever loves eggplant loooooves this dish. Make it and see for yourself. This is a stuffed eggplant recipe called bharahuva baingan or bharwan baingan or masala baingan.
                       I am serving the above dish with fluffy white rice and Amaranth leaves and lentils...thotakura pappu pulusu. This is a different recipe from the regular Thotakoora Pappu

Bharwan Baingan (Indian eggplant stuffed with spiced onion paste and shallow fried)

Stuffed eggplant

Ingredients:

1. 6 Indian purple eggplants
2. 1 medium onion
3. 1/2 -1 inch fresh ginger
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of roasted cumin, salt, chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder
5. 1 teaspoon dry roasted sesame seeds
6. 2 tablespoons dry roasted peanuts
7. 1/2 teaspoon salt
8. 2 tablespoons oil

Grind ingredients 2 to 6 with one or two teaspoons of water into a smooth paste. Wash the eggplants and make two vertical slits in the eggplant reaching about 3/4 length. They would look like a + sign. Heat oil in a wide pan . Stuff the masala into both the slits in the eggplant and drop it in the hot oil. repeat with all the eggplants. Fry on all four sides for  two minutes on each side. Add the remaining masala to the pan and cover and fry for 5-7 minutes. Add the salt and 1/4 cup water and cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the eggplants are tender and oil separates. Garnish with cilantro and serve

Khatti Dal Maat ki Bhaji (Sour lentils and Amaranth leaves)

Khatti Dal Maat ki bhaji

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup toor dal
2. 1 cup maat ki bhaji chopped roughly
3. 1 big tomato chopped
4. 2 cups juice from a small lime sized tamarind
5. 1 green chilly
6. 3/4 teaspoon salt
7. 2 teaspoons oil
8. 1 garlic pod chopped
9. 1/2 teaspoon each cumin, mustard seeds, hing (ajinomoto) (asafetida), turmeric
10. 2 dried red chilies broken
11. few curry leaves

Pressure cook the dal with Amarand leaves and tomato and turmeric for 4 whistles. After all the steam escapes open the cooker and mash the dal. Add the tamarind water and green chillies and bring to a boil. Let it boil for about 10 minutes. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the cumin and mustard seeds and dried red chillies and fry for a couple of minutes. Add garlic, curry leaves and fry for a couple of more minutes. Add hing and fry for a minute. Add this to the dal and boil for 5 minutes. Serve

Thotakura Pappu and Dahi Mirch

Thotakura or Amaranth or Maat ki bhaji or Chawli ki bhaji are the names of my favorite leafy vegetable in different languages. Sometimes when the whole family would go on road trips we would stop at Andhra Meal hotels...I don't know if they still exist because when the Golden Quadrilateral road project was built to connect various cities of India, the road was built to by-pass the villages. So it was also by-passing all the old hotels and meal places.
               Anyway in those hotels my favorite dish was ThotaKura Pappu. This Dal dish I make it either thick or a little thinner consistency with some other side dish. Today I made Bell pepper with yogurt and it was amazing. So here's the recipes

Maat ki Bhaji Dal (Lentils with Amaranth leaves)

Thotakura Pappu

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup toor dal (toasted)
2. 3-4 cups Amaranth leaves chopped along with stems
3. 1 tablespoon oil
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, urad dal,mustard seeds, salt, chilly powder , turmeric
5. 1 big or 2 small garlic pods chopped 
6. 1 big or 2 small tomatoes chopped
7. 2 dried red chillies broken
8. Few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker add the dal, tomatoes and leaves along with turmeric with 2 cups water and cook for 4 whistles. Let all the steam escape and open the cooker and mash the dal a little. Add one more cup of water and bring to a boil. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds and urad dal along with red chillies and curry leaves for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and fry for one more minute. Add the dal to this and the rest of the ingredients. Stir and bring to a boil. SImmer for 5-7 minutes. garnish with cilantro if desired and serve with hot rice

Dahi Mirch (Capsicum and potato in yogurt gravy)

Dahi Mirch Salan

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 green and 1/2 red or yellow bell pepper cut into cubes
2. 2 medium small potatoes boiled
3. 2 tablespoons oil
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric, salt, chilly powder
5. 1/2-3/4 cup plain yogurt beaten
6. 1/2 cup milk
7. 1 heaped teaspoon besan (chickpea flour)
8. 1 teaspoon kasuri methi

Peel the potatoes and mash 1 and set aside. Cut the other potato into small pieces. Heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds for a minute. Add the potato pieces and fry for 5 minutes. Add capsicum or bell pepper and fry for few more minutes. Move them to one side of the pan and add besan to it and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the milk and yogurt mix and mix well. Add chilly powder and turmeric and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Cut the heat. Add salt and kasuri methi stir to combine and serve hot