Soak the black-eyed peas for at least 5 hours and pressure cook the black-eyed peas with two garlic cloves and two drops of gingelly oil or castor oil for three whistles.
Once it's cooled down, reserve one-half of the cooked black-eyed peas and do not discard the water.
Pulse the remaining half coarsely and set aside.
Chop the onions, brinjals.
Grind the coconut and fennel seeds by adding about ¼ cup of water.
If using tamarind, soak it in water and squeeze about 1 cup of tamarind juice. If using paste, mix the paste in 1 cup of water and set aside.
Steps
Heat the pan/kadai/vaanali and add oil.
Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, hing and cinnamon.
As they start to splutter, add the broken red chilly pieces and curry leaves.
Fry them for a minute and add chopped onions.
Cook until the onions turn translucent.
Now add the chopped brinjals and let it cook for about 4 to 5 minutes until it is semi-soft.
Add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chilly powder and salt. Mix well.
Now add the tamarind water and let it simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes.
As it starts to boil, add the cooked black-eyed peas and the ground peas. Mix them well.
Add water according to your consistency preference.
Check for salt and spice at this stage and bring this to boil.
Once it starts to boil, add the ground coconut mixture and bring it to one boil again and turn off the heat.
That’s it. Yummy brinjal black-eyed peas kuzhambu is ready.
Notes
Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
Instead of chopping the brinjals into pieces, you can slit them as we do for ennai katharikai.
Coriander powder and red chilly powder can be substituted with 2.5 to 3 tbsps of sambar powder.
I love black-eyed peas, so I went with 1 full cup. You can reduce the black-eyed peas to ½ cup also.
A drop of castor oil is used while cooking the black-eyed peas. But I went with gingelly oil. If you can find edible castor oil, you can opt for that.