Eggplant Ginger Chutney

The big purple eggplant is generally used for baingan bharta in my kitchen. Not so tonight. A yummy eggplant-ginger chutney awaits the rice that’s still cooking.

You Need:

• Eggplant (purple, large round) – 1
• Ginger – 1.5 inch piece
• Onions – 2
• Jaggery – 1 teaspoon
• Tamarind – marble-sized ball
• Salt – To taste
• Oil – 2 teaspoons

For the tadka:

• Dried red chilies – 5 (reduce if you want less heat)
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil – 2 teaspoons

How To Make Eggplant Ginger Chutney:

1. Prepare the ingredients

Slice the eggplant into thin long strips. Soak them in salted water for 15 minutes, drain and wash before use. This helps to get rid of the bitterness.

Slice onions and ginger.

Soak the tamarind in a tablespoon of water.

2. Cook the veggies

Heat some oil in a wide, thick-bottomed pan. Put in the eggplant, onion and ginger slices and let them cook on high flame. For once, slight charring doesn’t matter – it gives a nice smoky taste to the chutney. Don’t let it blacken totally though, keep stirring at regular intervals. Switch off when the eggplant slices are done.

Let the eggplant mix cool to room temperature.

3. Grind

Transfer this to a food processor, add the tamarind pulp, jaggery and salt and "pulse" for a few seconds.

Cooling the ingredients makes a difference. Cooked chutneys don’t taste as good if the ingredients are blended when still hot.

I prefer the chutney to remain coarse, like bharta. I also like to heat the eggplant mix again for a couple of minutes, though you *could* skip this step. Cooking again post-blending gives the chutney a more appetizing richer color.

4. Do the tadka

Tear the dried red chilies into 3-4 pieces each. In a small tadka ladle, heat some oil, pop some cumin and mustard seeds, then fry the torn dried red chilies for a few secs.

Pour the hot tadka over the eggplant ginger chutney and mix.

To Serve:

Rice, dal, light curry, homemade yogurt go well with eggplant ginger chutney.

Notes:

Like the idea of vegetable-based chutneys? You must then try bottle gourd peel chutney, mooli chutney, yam chutney, ridge gourd onion chutney.