Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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.
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21 comments:

  1. The rice looks so tasty and inviting..love your serving dish and spoon.

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  2. Love this combo, super flavourful one pot meal.

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  3. Super..!! The recipe,the bowl,the serving spoon..everything is perfect...!!! Nice recipe..

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  4. the use of eggplant in rice is getting more popular ,adding coconut and tamarind is surely going to be delicious..nice recipe .

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  5. Eggplant & coconut in a rice dish sounds delicious -- never tried this combo before.
    I've never been very successful with growing eggplants, actually this year I took a break from growing any veggies at all except for chilies.

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  6. That's really such a nice way to make a rice dish. I wish my kids eat this, I can atleast try this out for us..:)..I am imagine how many other eggplant recipes are going to be featured..:)..maybe you should share those crop pictures as well..would love to see them.

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  7. Never tried this before...looks yummy.

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  8. not an eggplant fan, but looks delish although I would sub zucchini or other summer squash

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  9. I usually eat all vegetables but my husband is not very fond of eggplant. Eggplant & coconut combo is interesting and must have tasted very good.

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  10. I bet nothing beats the pleasure of plucking veggies from garden and making a dish out of it! I don't have a backyard..so I am yet to try my hand at gardening! Lovely rice dish.

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  11. Awesome recipe of rice with eggplant

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  12. Nice to know that you have vegetables organically grown. The rice looks so good with unique flavors of coconut.

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  13. We grow a few veggies and green here too.Love the idea of using home grown veggies.This sounds like vaangi bhath. Love your serving spoon...

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  14. The satisfaction of cooking with home grown vegetables is just unbelievable. The rice looks very tempting.

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  15. I tried your eggplant coconut rice yesterday and it was awesome! Thanks for posting the recipe!!
    -Nandini

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