Ennai kathirikkai kuzhambu

Ennai kathirikkai is a chettinad special , where brinjals are stuffed ,fried and led into the curry.This is a tangy, mouth watering dish in which , my mother has a master's degree .. I hav a long lasting relationship with this dish. The famous vellore 'mullu kathirikkai' is the apt one for cooking this dish.
Ingredients:
I have taken 6 to 7 small brinjals. It can either be purple or green. 1 medium sized onion, 1 small tomato, 6 to 7 garlic pods, 1 lemon sized tamarind ,curry leaves and cilantro. For stuffing , take 1 tbsp of chana dal, 1 1/2 tbsp of peanut, 1/2 tbsp of cumin seeds. And as usual tampering ingredients mustard seeds,cumin seeds and fenu greek seeds or methi seeds.

Method:

Chop the onions ,tomato and take juice from tamarind. Dry roast the stuffing ingredients and grind it with onion and make a fine paste. Add turmeric pwdr, chilli pwdr and salt into the mixture as shown below.


Wash and cut the brinjals into 4 pieces. Dont cut them fully , let it be a partial cut so that the stuffing does not come out. Take half of the grinded mixture and stuff it into the brinjal.

Take a pan add some oil and tamper with mustard , cumin and methi seeds. Add curry leaves and add the stuffed brinjals into the mixture. cook the brinjals untill they are half cooked , as shown in the picture.

Once the brinjals turn into slight brown color, add the tomatoes and garlic into the pan. Saute the tomatoes until they get smashed into the dish .

Now add the remaining stuffing mixture into the pan and saute untill the raw smell is gone.Now add the tamarind juice and salt to the pan and let it come to a boil. The oil will ooze out from the curry , its the time to turn it off. And serve with hot rice after garnishing.

Note:

U can also add sesame oil to the curry . This gives the dish a unique flavor .