Swetha’s Cookbook

Brinjal curry (vankaya ullikaram)

This vankaya ullikaram is cooked in tamarind juice, and has a very good taste because of the roasted dal powder added at the end of the curry. It is even very easy to prepare and doesn’t take much time even tastes great. If I see brinjals sitting in my fridge I grab them and do this in this way and enjoy the taste.

Ingredients:

Baby brinjals-5
Onions (medium)-3
ChilliPowder-2tsp
Salt-to taste
Turmeric-1/4 tsp
Tamarind Juice-1/2 cup
Water-1/4 cup
Oil-2tbsp
Uraddal/minapappu-1tbsp
Chanadal/senagapappu-1tbsp
Toordal/kandipappu-1tbsp
Redchilli-3

Pre-Process:

1. Make a deep plus cut  from the base end i.e opposite side of stem.  Not all the way through i.e slit each brinjal into four sections lengthwise without cutting off the crown.
2. Dry roast uraddal, chanadal, toordal, and redchillies and make it into fine powder.
3. Cut onions into large cubes and boil it in water for 1minute in a microwave or stove top.
4. Make a paste out of boiled onions in a blender or mixer.
5. Soak lemon size tamarind in water for 1/2 hour and extract juice out of it.
   

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a nonstick kadai and add onion paste and fry till golden brown.
2. Add brinjal , turmeric, salt and chilli powder and mix well.
3. Keep lid and cook brinjal pieces for 2-3 minutes by stirring in between.
4. Add tamarind juice and cook until brinjal pieces are cooked, keep  stirring in between.
5. Once curry is done add roasted dal powder and mix well.
6. Check salt and adjust if required.
    

Note:

1. Add little water if brinjal pieces are not cooked in step4 in above procedure.
2.  In step 4 if brinjal pieces are cooked but gravy becomes too thick add little water because after adding dals curry becomes thick. If it is thick in step4, it becomes too thick after adding dal powder.
3. Don’t add too much salt at first itself, because you can adjust salt even at last.
4. If you cut brinjals in advance keep them in water till you cook them so that brinjal pieces will not turn into dark color.