Ennai katharikai or Stuffed Brinjal is a spicy dry curry and its my favorite curry. Brinjal is my favorite veggie and I love brinjal in this form. Given the choice of brinjal recipes, I would always prefer this. It is the best combo for Avial or Mor kuzhambu. Usually I prepare this during weekend as this recipe required more time. But no pain no gain.. :-) Its worth the time. I won’t say it is a difficult process but its time consuming.
Basically ennai katharikai is a four step process
- Preparing the stuffing, the ennai katharikai podi
- Preparing the brinjals
- Fill the Stuffing
- Cooking the brinjals
Now let me explain this step by step,
1. Preparing the stuffing, the ennai katharikai podi
Ingredients:
- Dhaniya / Coriander seeds – 3 tbsps
- Channa Dhal / Kadalai paruppu – 1 tbsp
- Urad Dhal / Ulutham paruppu – 1 tbsp
- Hing – 1 tsp
- Coconut – 1/4 cup
- Dried red chillies – 5 (as per your taste)
- Salt – as required
Steps:
- Dry roast all the ingredients one by one without adding any oil.
- Dry grind them and add the required salt
2. Preparing the brinjals:
Tender and small brinjals are the best for this recipe. The stuffing recipe that I gave above will fill 15-20 small brinjals. If there is excess powder, I just add it to the curry itself. The fried podi tastes really good too. :-)
- Remove the stems from the brinjal and slit 3/4 vertically. Basically make a 3/4 cross so that the filling can be stuffed.
- After this process, wash them and make sure its worm free. Brinjal like cauliflower has worms sometimes.
3. Fill the stuffing:
- You need approximately 1 tbsp of the stuffing powder for each brinjal. Adjust the measurement according to the size of the brinjal.
- Fill the powder into all the brinjals.
4. The final cooking process:
Ingredients:
- Oil :3 to 4 tbsps
- Mustard seeds : 2 tsps
- Urad dhal : 2 tsps
- Channa dhal – 2 tsps
- A pinch of hing.
- 1 strand of curry leaves.
- Stuffed brinjals from the above process.
- 4 tbsps of water.
Steps:
- Heat the kadai and add 3 tbps of oil.
- Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds, urad dhal and channa dhal.
- As they start spluttering, add hing and curry leaves.
- Saute for half a minute and now add the stuffed brinjals. Add the excess powder on top.
- Just sprinkle the water on top of the brinjals and cover the kadai with lid and let it cook for 5-6 minutes. Make sure its not over cooked.
- Now lower the heat and cook to make sure all the water is absorbed.
- While turning the brinjals be careful not to break them apart. Cook till it gets roasted. This may take up to 12-15 minutes to get a nice crust.
That’s it. Ennai Kathirikai is ready. Serve it with Mor Kuzhambu or Avial or Rasam.
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