Eggplant Coconut Rice

I don't know much about vegetable gardening or gardening in general. I have been growing vegetables for the past 3 years or so. There is one thing that I have been growing every year - Tomatoes. But apart from that, I try different things every year. This year was a trial of growing eggplants and Bell peppers. Needless to say, we are eating a lot of eggplant nowadays. Here is one rice using this veggie.

One Year Back - Easy Pineapple Coconut Cake
Two Years Back - Zucchini Bread
Ingredients:
Rice - 1 1/2 cups uncooked (I used sona masoori, you could use basmati too)
Oil - 2 TBSP
Red Onion - 2 large
Eggplant - Long thin ones 3 sliced (Or use one medium big eggplant)
Dry Coconut / Kobbari - 1/2 cup  (If you can't find it, use dessicated unsweetened coconut flakes instead)
Garlic - 2 pods
Green Chillies - 5 - 6
Jaggery or brown sugar or white sugar - 1 TBSP (don't skip this)
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp (See notes if using regular tamarind)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 2 broken
Turmeric - a generous pinch
Curry leaves - few
Chana dal / Bengal gram dal - 1 TBSP
Raw peanuts - 2 TBSP
Salt - to taste

Method:
Wash and rinse rice. Cook with enough water ( 1:2 ratio). Let cool and fluff with a fork to separate the grains. Slice one onion into chunks and the other one into thin slices. In a pan, heat 1 tsp of oil. When hot, add the onion chunks, garlic, green chillies and coconut. Sprinkle some salt and let it cook. When cooked, set aside. To the same pan, add the remaining oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add broken red chillies, curry leaves followed by bengal gram dal and peanuts. Let the peanuts get toasted. Add the sliced onions, turmeric, little bit of salt. When onions are half cooked, add the eggplant slices and mix well. When this is getting cooked, take the contents you have set aside into a blender and blend into a coarse paste without adding any water. When eggplant is cooked, add the ground paste, tamarind paste, jaggery or sugar and mix well. After two minutes, add the cooled rice and mix well. Check and adjust the salt if needed. Turn off the heat. Serve as one pot meal.


Notes:
If you do not have tamarind paste, you can add about a small lime sized tamarind when you grind the onion, coconut and garlic mixture.

Linking it to Srivalli's Blogging Marathon.
Enjoy.