A beginner’s dish

Ever since childhood I have been teased for being a foodie, more so because the quantity of food I ate wasn’t directly proportional to my growth -  ‘”Where does all that food go?’’, Manasu nannavanam, ennale phalam undaavu (you should have a good heart, only then food shows its benefits) etc etc. However I must say I am very proud of the fact that I love food and have been able to dust these comments under the carpet and continue to live to eat J

I started this blog so I could share some of the experiments I have done in my kitchen and some of my views about the cuisines I have tasted. This is my first stab at writing something, so pardon me if you feel the flair is missing – I hope to improve with my posts.

Must admit, I wasn’t so much of a cook when I was a child – actually hadn’t even entered the kitchen except to eat. At home, mostly mom cooked or when she wasn’t around, grandmom cooked and I was happy to just enjoy whatever food was sent my way. I had an eye for detail though and was able to quickly pick what will be a special dish when cooked. There are some great cooks and dishes in the family and I have drawn a lot of inspiration from them. More about it in my future posts.

Cooking became a necessity when I moved out of my parents’ house and hence I began – with very simple rice, dal, poriyal (upperi as you say in Palakkadan Malayalam). When I received positive responses from my room mates, my next attempt was to venture into non veg dishes like butter chicken mainly to impress my friends ;) After marriage, with a foodie husband, we have explored a lot of new cuisines and tried a lot of it at home. Now as a mother of a two and a half year old, my challenge in cooking is to make creative dishes day in and day out.

I would like to share with you the first ever dish I remember making when I moved out of my parents’ place . While usually beginners go for an appealing dish, my first dish was Vazhuthananga upperi (brinjal dry fry). One might think why brinjal of all the veggies – I still cant remember, so don’t know why; my best guess is that was the only veggie available at home when my urge to cook kicked in.

So here is the recipe – well, that’s how I made it then J

Ingredients 

Oil – 1 tea spoon

Mustard seeds – ½ tea spoon

Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon

Curry leaves -  5 to 6 no

Crushed chilli – 2 no

Finely diced onion – medium size – 1 no

Salt to taste

Turmeric – a pinch

Coriander powder – 1 ½ tea spoon

Brinjal – violet ones, medium sized – 3 no

Garam Masala – ¼ tea spoon

Coriander leaves

Recipe 

• Heat a pan, add oil.
• Add mustard seeds when the oil is hot.
• When mustard starts to splutter, add cumin seeds and curry leaves.
• Add onion and sauté. Add a pinch of salt now to let the onion cook faster. When the onion starts to turn translucent, add the crushed red chilli and sauté for another minute.
• At this stage, add coriander powder, turmeric powder and mix well.
• While this is getting cooked, wash and chop the brinjal into small pieces. Put the cut brinjals into a bowl of water (you can add a pinch of salt to the water too). The vegetable turns brownish red and bitter if not put into water immediately after cutting due to oxidation.
• Once the raw smell of coriander powder goes off, add the brinjal pieces and mix well. Once the brinjal is sautéd add a little of the same water that the brinjal was put in.
• Add salt – careful while adding salt now as there was a pinch of salt added earlier.
• Mix well and let it simmer in medium heat.
• Once the brinjal is cooked well, garnish with coriander leaves and garam masala powder and serve hot. 

 Can be served as a side dish for rice, roti.

Garnishing note – Bit of a dull veggie you would think, but brinjal can be an amazing beginner’s dish as my experience says – see it even ended up being the star in my first ever blog post J