daalvaange

Both my grandmoms were good cooks. This recipe is from my maternal grandmom who we used to call as 'KaraaDachI aajjI'. My father doesn't eat eggplant at all. So my mom used to cook them very rarely and most 'BharalI Vaangi' or shuffed eggplants of Bharta. Sometimes Vange-Batata Rassa bhaaji. And almost never DaaLVange as she had to cook another dish just for my father and she did not have that much time in the morning. All my Mama's love eggplants in varius forms so grandma and my mom both can cook variety of dishes from eggplants. This is one of them. Little bigger brinjals which are bit bigger for the stuffed brinjal can be used for this dish.

3-4 medium sized eggplants

1/2 cup Toor DaaL

Tamarind of size of golf ball

Jaggery 1/2 of golf ball size

*Kanda Lasun Masala

1 tbsp coconut

2 cloves of garlic

Salt

Water - about 2 cups (as required)

2 tbsp Oil

For tempering - Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric, asafoetida, curry leaves.

Wash eggplants and take off the stem. Cut each in 8-10 pieces. Put the cut pieces in a bowl and pour water over them. Wash toor daal and add a cup of water to the daal. Now strain eggplant pieces and add them to toor daal. Pressure cook daal+eggplants till soft (3 whistles or so). Add some hot water over the tamarind and set aside. Grind coconut, garlic and some cilantro adding bare minimum water.

Now heat oil in a vessle and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric and asafoetida. Let the seeds sizzle. Add Coconut+garlic paste and saute for a bit. Now add cooked daal+eggplant to it. Add kanda Lasun Masala, salt, jaggery, sqeeze pulp from the soaking tamarind and add that. Let it boil for few minutes. Add water if required. The consistency is not daal like but little thicker than that. Serve hot with chapatis or rice.

Tip - 1. You can prepare this dish without tamarind and jaggery if you like it that way.

2. You can use one large ridge gourd instead of eggplant. That tastes good as well.

* Kanda Lasun Masala is a special Maharashtrian masala and is made in many households as a yearly stock. It has special garam masala+fried onion+dry coconut+garlic mixed together.

Please add your comments, suggestions to my original post @