Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter I
Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: I for Iguru/ Vankaya-Senagapappu Iguru (Eggplant-Chana Dal Curry)
Finding dishes that start with vowels is hard. Letter 'I' was even harder. All I could think of was Idli, but no matter how hard I thought I couldn't think of an Andhra spin to good old idlis. After a lot of thinking (out loud), the remembered the word Iguru. One of our dear friends back home used to call some of the curries 'igurus'. I didn't know what it actually meant, so I asked my mom to research.
She came back and said that the curries that are made by evaporating the liquid (igaradam) are generally called 'igurus'. I took it as the curries that are made slightly wet, but not necessarily with a gravy, fall into this category.
Luckily after that I watched an episode on a Telugu cooking show where the chef made this Iguru which I promptly noted down and made it for today. This is a spicy and flavorful dish that is perfect when served with steamed rice and rasam.
Ingredients
- 10 - 12 Eggplant Baby - chopped
- ½ cup Chana Dal (senagapappu) - soaked for 2 hours
- 2 chilies Dry red
- 3 cloves Garlic , crushed
- 1 tsp Ginger - finely chopped
- 2 chilies Green - finely chopped
- 6 - 8 Curry leaves
- ½ tsp Turmeric
- to taste Salt
For Tempering:
- 1 tsp Chana dal (senagapappu)
- 1 tsp Urad dal (minapappu)
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
Instructions
- Heat 2tbsp oil in a saute pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add dry red chilies and the crushed garlic cloves. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Next add ginger, green chilies and curry leaves, cook for 1 more minute. Add the soaked chana dal and fry for 2-3 minutes.
- Next add chopped eggplant along with salt and turmeric. Cover and cook on medium flame until eggplant is completely cooked through and chana dal is tender, about 10-12 minutes.
- Serve with rice or roti.
Rajani S
Take off the ginger and add a bit of ground coconut, and you have a koottu 🙂
Archana Potdar
Delicious and I see that Rajani has given kootu recipe too. Love to try them both.
Chikki Online
Yummy, Those all look delicious!Thanks for the tip.Happy to read your post and appreciating you for making this better and yummy foods. Thanks a lot.