Eggplant Masiyal / Brinjal Masiyal

This side dish is called as dosai masiyal, because it is prepared as a side dish for dosais. We don't make this dish often, because dosai is heavenly as it is, and all it needs is a simple sambar, chuntey, or milagai podi to dip into. But, when one has excess eggplants or brinjals in the kitchen and is bored out of their mind to make the same kinds of dishes, this is a nice dish to resort to. 

It is tangy, spicy, and very simple to make - a concentrated mixture of eggplant and tamarind to spice up dosais, idlis, and even rotis!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

1. 2 medium-sized eggplants, finely chopped
2. 2 green chillies, minced
3. 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
4. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
5. 1 tablespoon split husked black gram / urad dal / ulutham paruppu
6. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
7. 1 teaspoon sambar powder
8. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
9. a few curry leaves
10. salt, as needed
11. 1 inch ball of tamarind soaked in 3/4 cup of hot water for 30 minutes.
12. 1 teaspoon grated jaggery
13. 1 teaspoon rice flour
14. 2 tablespoons, dry roasted peanuts, crushed

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a skillet. When hot, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Add split black gram, green chillies, hing, turmeric, and curry leaves and fry until the black gram begins to change color. 
2. Add the eggplant/brinjal  pieces and fry on medium heat. Season with salt and continue to cook with the lid closed until the eggplant is half-way cooked (takes about 5-7 minutes). 
3. Extract the thick tamarind extract from the soaking pulp and add it to the eggplant. Add sambar powder and jaggery mix. Cook without the lid on for 10 minutes until the tamarind doesn't smell raw.
4. By this time, the eggplant must have cooked. Using a potato masher or the back of a wooden spatula, gently crush and mash the eggplant.
5. Sprinkle a teaspoon of rice flour and mix. This will thicken the eggplant mixture if there's any residual tamarind juice. Cook and stir the mixture for a couple of minutes until the flour doesn't smell raw. 
6. Remove from heat and serve with crushed roasted peanuts

This goes great with curd rice / thayir sadam as well.