People from the state of Maharashtra are known to love their curries and experiment with everything from the seasoning to the veggies in them. You can make the same curry below with a combination of veggies that catch your fancy. The iron content of brinjals and the fiber rich yam make a perfect combination when cooking up this dish for the ailing and aged. The dish goes well with the kids too and you can experiment with the rice and roti accompaniments that are a usual hit with the gravy. You could also choose the dry the gravy up as much as you want to serve a semi-dry (brinjals wont let the dish to get too dry anyways) and also on the contrary keep the gravy to enjoy the gravy with rice.
Ingredients:
3 brinjals, medium sized, sliced thick
1/2kg yam, peeled and sliced
3 tomatoes, pureed
1/2 teaspoon each of mixed spice, red chili, cumin, turmeric and coriander powder
1/2 cup of cooking medium or oil
1/4 cup of fresh coriander leaves, chopped fine
Water and salt as per requirement
Popular Accompaniments:
The dish goes well with rice, chapattis and bread of any variety. You could change and chop around the ingredients and their proportions to suit individual taste. Brinjals and yam make a yummy combination and a healthy one too. With a little more innovation of your own you could spice up or tone down the gravy to your individual taste. The filling goes well in a roti wrap too while travelling or on picnics or even while catching your favorite movie.
Main Cooking:
First heat the cooking medium or oil well in a heavy bottom pan that has its own lid.
Once the oil is nice and hot, add the tomato puree and all the spice powders.
Allow this base to cook on a low fire for around 2-3 minutes.
Don’t leave the gravy base unattended.
Stir the mix after every minute.
The tomato base needs to blend well with the powders.
You will know when the gravy base is ready, when it leaves the sides of the pan easily.
Next add the yam pieces and brinjals and allow the vegetables to integrate with the gravy for around 5 minutes.
Presentation:
Once the vegetables are cooked well, which will take no more than 3-4 minutes, sprinkle the gravy with the chopped coriander leaves and serve piping hot.
