Gutti Vankaya Koora - Stuffed Eggplant Curry

Gutti Vankaya Koora is the traditional dish of Andhra where the brinjals are split and filled with spice mix. Its almost the best brinjal dish I have ever had :) My mom makes it really well and in the authentic way. Happy to share her recipe here :)

This is almost the best brinjal dish I have ever had :) It has changed the history of me never touching brinjals ;)

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 1/2 kg
Urad dhall - 2 tblsp
Channa dhall - 2 tblsp

Redchillies - 10

Jeera - 1 tblsp

Turmeric powder

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size

Salt - for taste

Method:

Take a tsp of oil in a pan and fry urad dhall, channa dhall, redchillies, fenugreek seeds and jeera together for few mins. Collect it in the mixie jar. 

Wash the tamarind. Take a dry pan and drop in the tamarind and saute for few mins for it to become dry. 

Put the tamarind, turmeric and salt also in the mixie along with the above fried items and powder it a little coarsely. 

Collect the powder in a plate and smear 1 tsp of oil in the powder and mix it well. 

Wash and split the brinjals like a plus mark from above leaving 1/2 cms on the bottom. Now fill the above done powder into the brinjals. 

Take few tsps of oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and crackle mustard and curry leaves. Now place the brinjals carefully into the vessel and keep the flame medium. 

Now take a larger flat bottomed vessel and fill it with 1 cup of water and place it on top of the brinjal vessel. The brinjals would get steam cooked from the top. 

The brinjals would get cooked in 10 minutes. Check inbetween and turn the brinjals a little until it is evenly cooked. 

Remove from flame and serve it hot with ghee rice :)

Note:

The taste depends on the brinjal quality. Choose the best purple brinjals that are medium sized and firm but not too hard. 

Be careful while splitting the brinjals and fill the powder and press firmly for it to stay intact. 

The taste ofcourse adds on when you do it in the traditional method of placing water on top. Do not skip that step. 

Written by: Nithya
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