Gutti Vankaya is an authentic recipe made by stuffing the purple baby eggplants with a freshly roasted powder. Served with ghee and rice and Sambar makes a perfect sunday lunch in any household in the southern part of India especially telugu states.
Each household has a specific blend of spices that goes into the eggplants makes this curry more unique in its own way. The variatons made to eggplants stuffing is a lot and each and every recipe is flavorful on its own and a family favourite. Hence eggplant is called as the king of all vegetables.
Brinjals are mostly grown locally in most southern states of indian especially the telugu states. They are very tender and cook very quickly.
But if you live in a place where they are not locally grown they take a longer time to cook so pre cooking them to some extend will ensure a nice end result.
Roasted peanuts, roasted lentils, dry coconut , sesame seeds, are a few main bases stuffing. In our family we make a lot of varations to this stuffing and never get bored.
Yes, there are a lot varaitions to the stuffing and the curry can be dry or gravy based.Here i am sharing quick dry version of the spice blend i make for parties and a most requested recipe from friends.
This recipe will be great crowd pleaser and can be easily cooked in large quantities in less time.
INGREDIENTS FOR THIS EGGPLANT RECIPE
- Eggplants : Use small purple baby eggplants (Brinjal).
- Dry Coconut : This is the main ingredient of this version of stuffing.
- Sesame seeds : Adds nice flavor and tecture to the recipe.
- Coriander seeds : This is the main spice of the recipe.
- Urad dal : For nice flavor can skip too.
- Chili powder : Add as per with your spicy level. you can add after blending to the powder too.
- Tamarind : optional so add only little for a slightly tang.
- Curry Leaves : Adds aromatic flavor to the recipe, cuts the dry smell of coconut.
- Garlic : For flavor only, you can skip if you do not like garlic.
- Oil : Any cooking oil.
WHY DO WE NEED TO SEMI COOK THE EGGPLANTS?
If you get locally grown fresh eggplants from the market or your garden you can skip the step of semi cooking them as they are fresh and tender.
But eggplants/brinjal available outside India and in big cities are not not fresh and take a long time to cook. So deep frying is the only options to cook as used in many restaurants.
To avoid deep frying you can semi cook the eggplants in microwave for 3 – 4 minutes turning at a minute intervals will let us use less oil as well nicely cooked (not burned ) curry.
You can also pan fry them for 4 – 5 minutes and semi cook them.
Trim the long stem of the eggplant, do not completly remove it. cut along the bottom making an ‘X’ mark. Do not cut till the other end.
Prepare the stuffing
Stuffing can be prepared ahead of time. Dry roast the urad dal, coriander seeds, coconut and curry leaves on low medium heat.
Add the sesame seeds just before turning the flame off.Let cool.
Transfer to a blender and add garlic pods,chili powder, salt and tamarind. Grind into a powder.
Add some oil to the powder and adjust seasoning like salt and chili powder as per taste.
By this time the eggplants must have cooled. Stuff the powder carefully with out splitting them.
Add oil to the pan and arrange them in a single layer.
After arranging all the eggplants in the pan, cook on low flame by turning them in 3- 4 minute time intervals to avoid burning.
Turn the eggplant to cook on all sides. As the eggplants are semi cooked this shouldn’t take long.
Add some oil if required. usually the eggplants at the center cook quickly due to direct heat on low flame, Move them as needed while cooking.
When all the eggplants are completely cooked add the rest of the powder and turn off the heat. Cover and cook for 2 more ninutes after turning off the heat.
Poke the tip of the eggplant with a fork or tooth pick to check if it cooked.
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK !!!
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this recipe if you make it. So drop me a comment below, and be sure to tag on social media.
Also, let us know about any varaitions you made to this recipe, we would love to try it too.
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WATCH STUFFED EGGPLANT RECIPE HERE
Stuffed Eggplant (Gutti Vankaya Dry Curry)
Equipment
- Medium Pan
- Mixer/Blender
Ingredients
- 12 - 14 small indian eggplants(purple ones) (brinjal)
- 2 tsp urad dal/ black gram dal
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- ½ cup dry coconut flakes
- ¼ cup coriander seeds
- 2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder depends on spicy
- 5-6 curry leaves
- 4 small garlic pods
- tamarind tiny ball (blueberry size)
Instructions
- Wash and trim the eggplant stems a bit and slit like an X at the bottom till 3/4 way to the top leaving them intact.
- Cook eggplants till semi cooked , Cook in a microwave for 3 - 4 minutes in 30 second intervals. (or)Deep fry eggplants in oil to semi cook them(or)Cook in a pan with little oil for 3 -4 minutes on low flame.
- Dry roast the coconut flakes , coriander seeds , curry leaves, urad dal till slightly brown and add sesame seeds and turn the heat off. Set aside to cool.
- When cold enough to grind transfer to a blender jar add salt to taste, red chili powder , garlic pods , tamarind and blend to a powder. Taste and add salt chili powder as per your taste.
- Add little oil (2 tsps ) to the powder and mix till all the powder ccomes together.
- Stuff this powder in to the eggplants and set aside. Save 1/4 powder to add the curry later.Add 3- 4 Tbsp oil to a pan and arrange your eggplants into a single layer. Cook on low flame turning the eggplants to cook on all sides. Cover with a lid.
- Add the remaining powder during the last 2 minutes. Cook till the powder is roasted .Serve with Rice.
