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Recipe | Peanut & Poppy Seeds Stuffed Brinjal or Eggplants – Easy and Delightful Indian Curry

23 November 2012 9 Comments

Stuffed eggplant or Brinjal, a delicious Indian curry

A Brinjal by any other name is still a Birnjal’…was my one liner when mom used to cajole us eating eggplant or brinjal dishes in the name of Bharta, Brinjal Chokha, Raitas, stuffed Baingan and so on. But then most of the children I know have love-hate relationship with Brinjal…and I too had mine, so no regrets.

I feel the pinch when I watch Asian chefs tossing out exotic eggplant recipes on television shows and savoring them with a Hmm..wow…I should have taken a risk to explore the versatility of this humble veggie then.

Though I keep trying various eggplant recipes at home but all I know is  Brinjal Bharta (smoked eggplant with spices), brinjal fritters (coated with chickpea flour) and a few Indian curries. Anyways Brinjal is a favorite at home now and even my children love it….and yes, I don’t have to cook up new names to make them eat this purple veggie anymore 🙂

Peanut and sesame stuffed Brinjal curry is quite popular in many parts of North and West India. Normally the dish is done with just sesame, peanut powder and minimal spices in it which my children find too dry and often avoid it. I make this recipe with poppy seeds and add a paste of a few more veggies to make it a gravy based dish which we enjoy eating with hot Indian flat breads or chapattis.

Stuffed eggplant or Brinjal curry with poppy seeds and peanut paste

Use small and round eggplants which are light and soft to touch, as the harder varieties have seeds in it.

Brinjal or eggplant curry, stuffed with poppy seed filling.

Ingredients

(serve 2)

  • 10-12 small eggplant (brinjal)
  • 3 tbsp. groundnuts
  • 1 tbsp. poppy seeds
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 2 onions
  • 3-4 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp. oil
  • Salt as desired

Spices;

  • 1 tbsp. coriander seed powder
  • 1 tsp. red chilly powder
  • 1 tsp. Garam masala powder
  • 1 tsp. mustard and cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds powder
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder

Stuffed eggplant or Brinjal curry with poppy seeds and peanut paste

Method; Wash and wipe all the eggplants or brinjals. Make two slits at the bottom of each brinjal.

Dry roast groundnuts in a pan for 10 minutes on medium heat and remove it. Similarly dry roast poppy seeds (Khus-khus) if using for 5 minutes and take off the flame.

Grind groundnuts and poppy seeds into fine powder.

Peel and slice onion, dice tomatoes, grind them into a paste with ginger and garlic cloves.

Stuffed eggplant or Brinjal curry with poppy seeds and peanut paste

Take a small bowl and add groundnut and poppy seed powder, red chilly powder, cumin seed powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, salt, turmeric and mix well. Add a little water in the dry powder and mix to make a paste.

Fill a tbsp. or more of this paste in each brinjal.

Heat oil in a flat pan and crackle mustard and cumin seeds. Add tomato-onion-ginger-garlic paste in it and saute for 5-6 minutes on medium heat.

Place all the stuffed eggplants or Brinjals carefully in the pan. Coat the sauteed masala gently over the brinjal with a ladle.

Stuffed eggplant or Brinjal curry with poppy seeds and peanut paste

Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes on low heat. Open the lid and turn the brinjal to other side cover with lid and cook again for 10 more minutes.

Take the pan off the flame and garnish the dish with chopped fresh coriander leaves. Serve this delicious Peanut & Sesame Stuffed Eggplant recipe with hot Indian flat breads or plain rice.

Notes;

  1. You can avid the tomato-onion paste in the recipe and cook the stuffed eggplant just with the paste of sesame and peanut.
  2.  Normally whole spices (coriander, cumin, red chilly) are roasted and ground into powder to make the paste. Mine is a quick fix method of cooking and it saves lot of time for me.
  3. Do not remove the stalk from the Brinjal, as it help hold the veggie in shape without the stuffing coming out while cooking.
  4. Add a few slices of potatoes while cooking the recipe, in case your children don’t wish to try Brinjal.
  5. Add one cup of warm water in the end to make it a gravy dish which you can enjoy with plain rice or chapattis.
  6. If you have peanut allergy, replace it with sesame and a few almonds in the recipe.

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9 Comments »

  • chinmayie @ love food eat said:

    I am salivating! This is my favorite… I am a big eggplant fan and there isn’t one eggplant dish I don’t enjoy.

  • Kamalika said:

    Sanjeeta, since a long time I am looking for a stuffed brinjal recipe…and this one sounds perfect…Bookmarked…

  • lakshmi said:

    Wow!! Was waiting to make this but could not get a good recipe. Thanks Sanjeeta for posting this.

    I will surely try this weekend.

  • mjskit said:

    I would love to be able to find beautiful little eggplant like these. I bet this dish taste delicious and I can only imagine how the house smelled while they were cooking. LOVE the amount of coriander powder and additional spices! Every time I start struggling on what to do with eggplant, I find a great recipe like this! Love the recipe and love the pics! You little spice box take a rather non-colorful dish and makes it beautiful!

  • Nami | Just One Cookbook said:

    Eggplant curry! My neighbor cooked this once and I fell in love. Now I got your recipe! 😀 Eggplant is my favorite veggie and curry goes so well together. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

  • Katherines Corner said:

    We eat a lot of eggplant, this looks great! Wishing you a beautiful day and sending an invitation for you to share your blog at my blog hop today. Hugs!

  • kankana said:

    In bengali cuisine poppy seeds are used a lot and we make something similar with potatoes. But, i am loving the stuffed baigan recipe.

  • ndave said:

    I just made this dish but without tomato. It turned out tasty but the brinjal was still rubbery and not well cooked. Any suggestions? At first i cooked it without water on a low setting and then added half a cup of water. This took 10 mins.

    I even took pictures like yours! Will link to it once I am done 🙂

  • sanjeeta kk said:

    @ndave, depends on the quality and size of Brinjal used in the recipe. Small sized brinjal which are light and soft will cook faster. If you feel the brinjals are not cooked properly, just sprinkle a little water, cover with a lid and cook on slow fire for another 10 minutes. Hope this works.

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