Stuffed Steamy Eggplant

Andhraites (People of Andhra Pradesh, South India) love their eggplants/brinjals so much that I have seen all my Telugu friends make something or the other with these lovely violet vegetable. Stuffed, steamed, fried, sauted, chutney, gravy, they will have atleast one of these things done with their eggplants. One such recipe is this one which I got from one of my Telugu friends. I got this recipe about 4 years ago but never tried until recently. Not a good looking dish, I must admit but it tastes absolutely delicious. And it is healthy too as the baby eggplants are steamed all the way.

Ingredients:

10-12 baby eggplants

For Stuffing:

1/4 cup chana dal (kadala paruppu/bengal gram)
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
4-5 dry red chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
8-10 curry leaves
1 tsp oil

Heat oil in a frying pan and roast the above "stuffing" ingredients for 2 minutes until they release their flavour. Remove from heat and allow it to cool for few minutes. Coarsely grind to dry powder. Mix required salt to the powder and keep aside.
Slit every baby eggplant at the bottom in a criss-cross way and stuff the slits with the spice mix. Reserve the left over spice mix for later use.
Now steam these stuffed eggplants in a steamer and let it steam for 10-12 minutes until the eggplants are cooked through.

Tempering:

10-12 shallots (finely sliced) or 1 medium onion (finely sliced)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal (black gram/ uzhunnu paruppu)
1/2 tsp chana dal (bengal gram/kadala paruppu)
few sprigs of curry leaves
1 tbsp oil

Heat oil in a kadai (wok) and add the mustard seeds, urad dal & chana dal. Let them splutter. Now add the shallots or sliced onion and saute till translucent. Now place the stuffed eggplants slowly in to the wok and coat the tempering well onto them. Sprinkle the left over spice mix on to the eggplants and mix carefully. Saute well for 4-5 minutes.
Throw some curry leaves in the end and serve hot with plain white rice and dal or with hot rotis.