Stuffed Eggplants

          Eggplants or brinjals or aubergines (some of the names that I know), there are so many varieties of them, the huge ones, the chinese eggplants, the Italian eggplants, the small, smaller and smallest brinjals, and also of different colors, white, purple and green. For today's stuffed eggplants we use the small purple brinjals, not too puny, but smaller ones, we have to slit and stuff the brinjals. And again, there are so many stuffings, each one tastes equally good, today's is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's book. It calls for sesame seeds and coconut along with other spices to stuff the brinjals, the dish goes very well both with rice and rotis..

Need to Have

• Small Brinjals - 20
• Onions - 2 medium chopped
• Garlic - 5 cloves chopped
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Tamarind - 1 lemon size
• Jaggery - 2 teaspoons
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Green Chillies - 1 slit

For The Stuffing

• Sesame Seeds - 2 tablespoons
• Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons
• Dried Red Chillies - 8 to 10
• Coriander Seeds - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon
• Cumin Seeds - 2 teaspoons

Roasted Spices

The Stuffing

The Stuffed Brinjals

 Method  
          Cut the stem, and quarter the brinjals till 3/4 th of its length, don't cut it fully and keep them soaked in salt water. Add hot water to tamarind and take a thick extract from it. Dry roast the ingredients given under stuffing and powder them. Heat oil, add the onions and garlic, saute till raw smell goes away, mix in the powder, tamarind extract, jaggery and salt, mix till it becomes thick. Remove, cool and stuff the brinjals with this. Arrange the brinjals in a greased tray, spread the remaining stuffing on the top, add some oil and a little water. Bake at 400F for 35 to 40 mins. Heat a little oil, add mustard seeds, once it splutters add the slit green chilli, add on top of the cooked brinjals.

Sending it to Sumee's Culinary Bites for Vardhini's Bake Fest event,
                to Food Corner for the Midweek Fiesta event and
                to Zesty Palette for Priya's Healthy Diet - Vegetarian Side Dishes event.               

Note
Can do the whole thing on stove top, (but might need a little more oil), cover and cook. Even in the oven if the brinjal dries up, sprinkle some water in between.
I left out the part with the mustard seeds seasoning, didn't feel a need for it.
Oven timings vary, I had started cooking at 350F, but halfway through, felt it was not enough so raised the temperature to 400F, whatever temperature you set, cook till the brinjals become soft.
If you do not know to extract juice from tamarind, use 2 tablespoons of the readymade tamarind paste.
The red chillies that I have now are too bland, add yours wisely, you can add some chilli powder later if you find the masala not spicy enough (I tasted mine before stuffing).