Stuffed fingerling eggplants – Gutti Vankaya

Today I put forward another family heirloom that our grandma, ammamma, passed on to us grandkids, an eternal love and appreciation to brinjal/eggplant or vankaya. This recipe here is a love letter to this vegetable. Our family call this the king of all vegetables. I always complained how the eggplant here does not have the same taste that we find back home. I may have found a solution to this problem- grow your own!

When I curated the saplings for my patio kitchen garden, I knew I had to pick the finest small eggplant variety to grow. These organic little fingerling variety is just that! It gives the Asian sized eggplants and in bunches! I could harvest five at a time and had five more on their way on the plant. Talk about instant gratification!

After teasing my instagram followers for weeks on the eggplant harvest updates, starting from flower to fruit, I took votes on what to make out of them. An overwhelming majority wanted to see the recipe for this simple stuffed eggplant recipe. The nostalgia was palpable guys! I, personally, was debating between an eggplant pot rice meal versus this stuffed eggplant. I went with what people wanted to see in this space.

I have heard how fresh vegetables taste different from store bought ones, but never realized that freshly plucked vegetables are totally a league of their own! They cook quickly without needing much heat and melt in your mouth.

I added the curry powder that amma made and sent from India and will also be posting that recipe for those that are interested. So, the famous way of making the stuffed eggplant is to fill the sliced eggplants, which are still held together by the green stem, with a spoonful of this curry powder and add them to hot oil in a pan. But, what we need to realize is the vegetable needs a little longer to cook and the curry powder does not need to be recooked at all. So, this process will need to burning of the curry powder. Instead, what amma recommends is to lightly salt the eggplants and add them to a pan with a teaspoon of oil to cook. Within few minutes, under closed lid, they are cooked to the core and we can add the curry powder to the slit eggplants.

Ingredients:

• 5 small eggplants
• 1 tbsp avocado oil
• 2-3 tbsp curry powder
  • 1/2 cup grated coconut
  • 2 tbsp chana dal
  • 1 tbsp urad dal
  • 3-4 whole red chillies
  • 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  • A pinch of asafoetida/hing
  • Salt

Recipe:

1. For making the curry powder, dry roast the lentils – chana dal and urad dal and when they are brown, add the red chillies and coriander seeds, which do not take as long to brown. Turn off the heat and add the grated coconut. Let the contents cool down in pan. Transfer the contents to a spice jar or blender and add salt and hing and grind to a uniform powder. This can stay bottled in an airtight jar for few weeks to months.
2. Take the eggplants and use a knife to carefully slice them in length, but still held together at the stem.
3. Rub some salt on the inside using your fingers delicately.
4. Warm up the skillet and add a teaspoon of oil and place the eggplants in the oiled skillet.
5. Once you hear one side sizzling, slowly turn them such that the uncooked side touches the skillet and cooked side comes up.
6. After five minutes of cooking, close the lid and keep cooking on medium heat.
7. Check in five minutes to see whether the eggplants have shriveled up. If not, turn the direction and continue cooking with the lid closed.
8. Add 2 tbsp curry powder and try to use a spoon to scoop it inside the eggplant gently.
9. Cook under closed lid for another two minutes and turn off the heat. The eggplants will continue cooking in the hot skillet for a little while longer.
10. Serve it with a cup of hot rice with a dollop of ghee or a flatbread roti, again with a dollop of ghee! Do not forget the remove the stems before eating though.

Career Progress and Potato and Leeks Flatbread

My posts are getting sporadic by the day. I am making it a priority to do a post biweekly moving forward. To excuse my absence, after four months of gap, I am back in the real workforce and this time, it is will be my first corporate experience. I had to give myself some breathing time to get used to the routine. My first twenty days has now made me understand why everyone always waited for the weekend! My earlier jobs were at universities and federal organizations where in a lot of ways, I was in charge of my timings and I had to be self-disciplined to get work done. Corporate America is a totally different world! I have to be at work by a specific time, though I love my perks when there. There is sugar-free infused waters in multiple varieties, amazing coffee and caffeine-free options, lot of fresh fruits to be picked up as a snack. I love that this is different from the usual free food we used to get at universities: pizza and cookies!

I have created a new routine by waking up by 6am (twenty days and counting) and spend some time with my warm water infused with lemon and spend it breathing in fresh air by my tiny patio garden. An hour later, with Good Morning America, I get ready to enjoy my half cup of coffee (been on a mission to reduce coffee) and breakfast (eggs-boiled or scrambled with a cup of upma or idli or dosa have been my go-to workday breakfasts). Cheers to new and peaceful beginnings.

With that, I want to jump into my latest flatbread! I love me a comforting potato and leeks soup and I thought why not make it into something with a bite to it? When my imperfect produce box came with a beautiful organic leeks and potatoes, I decided to use the leftover ricotta from chioggia Beets Halwa with Ricotta and turn it into a tasty Friday night fun food!

I use my favorite store-bought pizza dough from trader joes. There is a whole wheat and regular option, both of which have a good raise.

To add more flavor, I added scoops of pesto directly to the ricotta and layered it on the dough. These pictures show why I can never sustain a manicure for more than few hours! I always get my hands dirty in the kitchen, whether it be doing dishes simultaneously while cooking (helps with the post-cooking clean up) or making sauces or layering them on.

I layered thinly sliced potatoes, which can then bake easily with the dough and top them with rings of well-cleaned leeks. It is important to get rid of the residual mud from the leeks and it is easier to do it after cutting the leeks. Also, if you want to use thicker potato slices, then I would strongly recommend that you boil them ahead of time al dente and then slice them.

I like to top this all up seasoned leek greens. I definitely think adding some massaged arugula after baking the flatbread as a great option too.

Ingredients:

• 1 small potato (russet or red)
• 1 stalk of leeks
• Pizza dough
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 tbsp Pesto sauce
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Recipe:

1. Mix the pesto and ricotta to get the base sauce ready.
2. Roll the pizza dough to get half inch thickness and layer the base sauce.
3. Layer the sliced potatoes (seasoned with oil, salt and pepper) and top them with rings of leek.
4. Season the leek greens with red chilli flakes and oil and a pinch of salt and just throw it all on the top.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and when ready, place the pizza to cook.
6. Depending on how thick you spread the dough, the pizza should be cooked in around 15-30 minutes. Keep checking until you see a brown and crispy crust.
7. Take it out of the oven and drizzle some balsamic reduction. DONE!

Taco Party

I love Mexican food! May be it is all those chilies and lime or all that cilantro, but it reminds of Indian summer food! A simple fajita or a burrito bowl or even a taco has a perfect mix of some sour and spice, hot and cold, all eaten with either the rice or tortilla, which is just like our roti. So, when my parents visit, we always look for a Mexican place as our go to eat out place.

Also, a taco party makes for a fun activity to do with friends or kids, with a side of margaritas for the adults! It looks like it is exhausting but in all honesty, the work is spread out and can be easily done for more than ten people at one go. I can vouch for it as I took this to my 30th birthday boat party! Simple steps, cook the rice in a rice cooker, beans in a slow cooker, veggies on the skillet, crema in a blender and voila!

What? You say that still looks exhausting? Let me break it down further then. Taco party needs the following:

Tortillas: I usually use store bought, and I prefer corn tortillas but seriously, there are so many options and I am sure each one of you has a favorite.

Beans: Cook a cup of black beans overnight in slowcooker with 1/2 tbsp salt with at least 3 cups water.

Cilantro-lime Rice

One could do tomato rice or like me, make the cilantro-lime rice, which is what they give in the chain restaurant, Chipotle.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long grained rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp ghee or butter
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 cup finely chopped cilantro

Recipe:

1. Bring the water to boil and add the ghee and rice to the water. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for around 15-20 minutes with the lid closed.
2. Fold in the lime juice and cilantro and adjust the salt as needed.

Pico de gallo

Ingredients

• 1 tomato chopped
• 1 small red onion (finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup sweet corn
• 1/2-1 jalapeno (finely chopped)
• 1/2 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 cup cilantro (finely chopped)
• Salt

Recipe:

Mix the ingredients and let them sit in refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight.

Fajita Veggies

Ingredients:

• Chopped veggies (peppers, sweet potato, cauliflower, onions, corn)
• Taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp oil

Recipe:

1. Start with a hot cast iron skillet and add the oil and veggies.
2. Cook for around 2-5 minutes. Don’t overcook the veggies. Sweet potatoes take longer, and add them to the skillet first.
3. Add the salt at the end.

Avocado-lime crema

I LOVE using this but this can be easily subbed with either a simple guacamole or just plain ol’ avocados.

Ingredients:

• 1 avocado scooped
• 2 tbsp greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 jalapeno
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• salt
• water to thin

Recipe:

Put them all in a blender and run it twice.

 

Assembly:

Additional ingredients: Pico de gallo or fresh chopped veggies (jalapenos, onions, tomatoes, cilantro)

For tacos

Take a warm corn tortilla. Layer it with 1 tbsp rice, 1 tbsp beans, some fajita veggies, fajita veggies and add some freshly chopped veggies and top it up with some crema.

Put it in your mouth.

For bowl

Take a bowl and add 3 tbsp rice, 2 tbsp beans, fajita veggies, salsa, fresh chopped veggies and pico de gallo and top it with some crema.

Put it in your mouth.