Stuffed Eggplant- Stir Fry ( Gutti Vankaya Fry)

Stuffed Egg Plant – Stir Fry (Guthi Vankaya Fry) with Fairy Tale Eggplants:

I found beautiful purple ‘fairy tale’ egg plants in farmers market. These eggplants are very tender, tiny , tear drop shaped, purple striped eggplants. I simply smiled when I read the label. I make many varieties with eggplant, but I simply observed that eggplant lose its color when cooked. I just don’t want to cook in a regular way for these fairy tale eggplants and lose the gorgeous color. So I decided to use ‘Oil Blanching’-a very rare technique which I have seen in one of the Iron Chef program in food network. This technique I used only to retain the color and texture of the eggplant. Oil Blanching is a real quick deep fry of the ingredients in hot Oil. The vegetable has to fry just a min and quickly to be removed from oil.

Ingredients:

Eggplants – 10-12 in number  (preferably small or medium size)

For Stuffing:

Methi seeds – ½ spoon

Coriander seeds – 2 spoon

Jeera seeds – 1 spoon

Peanuts – 2 spoon

Sesame Seeds – 1 spoon

Poppy seeds – 1 spoon

Dry Shredded Coconut – 2 spoon

Ginger Garlic paste – 1 spoon

Red Chillis – 4 or Red Chilli powder – 1 spoon (as per taste)

Tamarind – a small lemon size (soak it in a very little water and use the water by removing the pulp)  (add ½ spoon of tamarind paste if you use paste)

Turmeric – ¼ spoon

Salt – as per taste

Oil – 3 cups of Oil (for Oil Blanching) – Optional , Exclusive for this recipe to retain the color of the eggplant

For tampering:

Oil – 3 spoons of oil for stir fry

Curry Leaves – for garnish

Coriander leaves – for garnish

Jeera seeds – ½ spoon

Mustard Seeds – ½ spoon

Preparation: Roast Methi Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Jeera Seeds,  Peanuts, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and shredded coconut separately till the seeds turn golden brown in color. Grind all these ingredients into coarse mixture. Add salt, turmeric, ginger garlic paste and tamarind paste and mix into a coarse tight paste.  Do not add water to make the paste liquid.

Wash Eggplants, pat dry with paper towels.  Make two slits for each eggplant (Like a plus sign, one is vertical and the other horizontal) starting from the bottom towards the stem. Keep the stem on if the stems are fresh.

Take a small amount of stuffing and stuff inside the eggplant without breaking the eggplant. Stuff all eggplants and keep aside.

(Oil Blanching (This is Optional): Oil Blanching is the technique I used in this recipe to retain the color of the brinjal. This step is not necessary.  Take a wok or deep fryer, pour oil and bring the oil to medium hot. Take one or two eggplants at each time, deep fry quickly for 1 min in the oil and then Keep aside on paper towel. This allows the flash cooking of eggplant without losing the color and texture.) Please make sure you have prior experience in frying with oil when you try Oil Blanching method.

Heat 2 spoons of oil in the pan. Add Mustard seeds, Jeera seeds, Curry Leaves and fry till gets brown. Add the stuffed egg plants (oil blanched) slowly to the pan, cover it with the lid, let it cook on low- medium heat for 10-15 mins (Till the egg plants get soft). Remove the lid and stir the egg plants under high heat for few mins (1-2 mins). Garnish with Coriander leaves, serve hot with Rice or Roti.