Name: Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Coconut and Roasted Legumes (Thenga Katarikai)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 4 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed; 1 cup shredded fresh coconut; or ½ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note); 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 12 small eggplants (1½ pounds total; see Tip); 1 tablespoon coriander seeds; 2 tablespoons raw cashew nuts; 2 tablespoons yellow split peas (chana dal), picked over for stones; 2 tablespoons skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones; 5 tablespoons canola oil; 10 to 12 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Cooks in every region of India stuff baby eggplants—the fillings range from minced meat to mashed vegetables. The Tamils in southern India fill their baby purples with fresh coconut and roasted legumes, both hallmark ingredients of this area’s cuisine. I served this as a side with Roasted Leg of Lamb with Raisin-Mint Sauce for a recent Christmas dinner. The bold flavors worked well with the equally robust lamb, and even a diehard eggplant-hater was co