Ingredients
Method
Prep
- Rinse the eggplants by running them under cold water and wiping dry with a paper towel. In Kashmiri recipes, you don’t slice off the top of the eggplant. You keep the stem intact. Cut the eggplant body in half lengthwise/vertically.
- Deep fry the eggplants. Kashmiri cuisine requires the eggplants to be deep fried until slightly brown. That helps it cook quickly and eliminates the raw eggplant taste. If you don’t wish to deep fry the eggplants you can shallow fry them until they skin looks cooked and they change color to slightly dark.
- Puree the tomatoes.
Cook
- Heat oil in a wide pan on medium-high heat. Add in asafoetida. In about 30 seconds add in cumin seeds, cloves, whole black cardamom pods.
- When the cumin seeds splutter add in Kashmiri chili powder and stir well.
- Add in the tomato puree quickly to prevent the chili powder from burning. Let the tomato puree cook for a few minutes until the oil leaves the sides. Furthermore, add in salt, ginger, ground fennel and water. Stir well.
- Next add in the eggplant and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the egg plant is cooked. Finally add in ground cumin and garam masala and stir well.
- Cover the pan with a lid and finally cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the gravy thickens. Top with 2 whole green chilis. Turn off the flame and enjoy with white rice.
Notes
This recipe doesn't need to have a lot of gravy. However if you like it soupy you add add an additional 1/4 cup water, so 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup.
The whole spices (cardamom pods, and cloves can be discarded, they don't need to be consumed).