Asadu Kootu / Eggplant Kootu

We were lucky to reap a lot of brinjals (or rather eggplants) this Summer and Fall. So, for the entire months of September and October, I had to think of every kind of eggplant-based dish to use all the ripe bounty. One of the recipes that I found in Meenakshi ammal’s cookbook sounded interesting, primarily because of its unique name - Asadu Kootu. “Kootu” means dhal in Tamil (a dish that is predominantly made with lentils and pulses), and “Asadu” loosely translates to silly or someone indulging in bad-behavior. Naughty, misbehaving kids are usually chided with the term. So, it’s very intriguing as to why a dish would be named so! I still don’t know the reason, but the recipe itself was easy to follow and quite similar to most Tamil kootus. But, I added a few extra ingredients, and used different measures of almost everything. So, here's my adapted recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of uncooked Thoor dhal
2. 4 brinjals/medium Chinese eggplants (I was desperate to use as much eggplant as I could) - cut the eggplants into thin, long pieces.
3. 1.5 teaspoons of sambar powder (my addition to the recipe)
4. A small lime-sized ball of tamarind
5. 2 pinches of Kasuri Methi (dried methi leaves; again, this is just my addition)
6. 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
7. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
8. 1 teaspoon of salt (more or less)
9. 3 green chillies
10. A small piece of ginger - finely minced
11. Coriander/cilantro leaves for garnishing
12. 1 tablespoon of olive oil/vegetable oil
13. Freshly prepared ground spice powder from the following ingredients that are dry roasted, and then ground to a powder (you can roast the ingredients separately to avoid over--burning or under-roasting; roast until the ingredients turn light brown)
1. 2 tablespoons of coriander powder
2. 1 tablespoons of channa dhal / bengal gram dhal
3. 1 teaspoon of toor dhal
4. 2 teaspoons of split urad dhal
5. ½ teaspoon of black pepper
6. 2-3 dried red chillies
7. ½ teaspoon of Hing

Preparation:

1. Cook the thoor dhal till it is soft and mushy (pressure cooking is ideal and fast; cover the thoor dhal with 1 inch of extra water on top)
2. Extract tamarind juice by the following process - immerse the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes. When the water is cool to touch, squeeze the pulp to get out all the juice. Strain the pulp, add more water (about 1/2 cup) to it and perform a second round of juice extraction. Throw away the final tamarind pieces.
3. In a pan, add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, splutter mustard seeds, green chillies. Add turmeric powder and ginger, and saute for a few seconds.
4. Add the brinjal pieces and stir/fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the extracted tamarind juice, salt, sambar powder and let the brinjals steam and cook in the spiced tamarind juice. You may cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes, until the eggplants are tender, and the tamarind water comes to a couple of boils. The boiling is also to ensure that the raw, pungent smell of tamarind dissipates.
6. At this point, add the cooked dhal and stir well. Add a cup of water if needed to dilute the mixture. Add the freshly prepared spice powder and mix well. Allow the kootu to come to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it steep and simmer with a couple of pinches of Kasuri methi. The goal is to remove any raw smell of the dhal, so simmer till the flavors infuse (15 minutes or so).
7. Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander/cilantro leaves.

This dish goes well with rice and rotis. It is a mix of sambar and kootu.