Eggplants from our garden - Baingan Masala

We've been going organic lately at home cause 

1. Its fun to grow your own vegetables - to see them grow each day is like nurturing a child

2. Organic vegetables in stores are cut throat

3. I actually like going out and plucking some extra vege's to be chucked into my dishes rather than driving out to search for them. Convinient, lets just say.

4. It's actually cost saving ( well, that's an additional benefit)

My dad has been really into growing our own vegetables in small patches of land we have in our garden. Our collection now comprises of mint leaves, basil leaves, chillies, eggplants, sword beans, curry leaves and errmm - well the banana tree at the backyard.

Freshly harvested eggplants from the garden.

Perhaps I never thought growing my own vegetables were considered chic ;) until I found the Grow Your Own food blog event by the Daily Tiffin somewhere in the week. Keeping a mental note to dish out something for the event during the weekend, I walked out to my garden this morning and picked up some ripe eggplants for the pan.

The spicy recipe that I dished out can be referred to below.

Baingan Masala ( Masala Eggplant)

4 medium sized eggplants (see picture above for size)

1 tsp red chilli powder

salt to taste

Oil for frying

Curry leaves - stem removed

Dried methi leaves (dried fenugreek leaves)

1 tsp garam masala

Method of preparation :

1. Quarter eggplants into wedges

2. Marinate the eggplants with red chilli powder and salt

3. Deep fry till crispy

4. In a separate pan, add about 2 drops of oil and lightly roast curry leaves until fragrant.

5. Turn off the fire and add fried eggplants, dried methi leaves and garam masala .

6. Coat fried eggplants evenly with the garam masala and dish out to serve.

(Note : You could be flexible with garam masala and methi leaves - if you decide to omit the methi leaves or substitute garam masala with coriander and cumin powder it should taste just as well)