Mahanandi

Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

Brinjal & Potato Curry (Vankaya-Alu Pulusu)

Velvety texture of young, fresh green eggplant is a pure luxury, especially when paired with potatoes and tomatoes. The purple brinjals does not have the same delicate flavor but makes a good substitute here. The combination that I like most is brinjal-potato curry with sorghum roti. I have the sorghum flour, I know how to make the roti and I wanted to make them for this curry, but I was short on time so instead I made rice, the quick and easy alternative.

Recipe:
Thai Eggplant (Green brinjal / Poluru Vankaaya)
6 to8 green brinjals
1 or 2 medium sized potatoes – peeled and cubed
4 to 6 large, plump, ripe tomatoes – diced finely
1 onion – sliced thinly lengthwise
1 tablespoon of dry coconut powder
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds (gasa gasaalu) – powdered
1 teaspoon of ginger-garlic-cilantro paste
1 teaspoon of red chilli powder and salt
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

Preparation:

Take tap water in a pot and add one teaspoon of salt. Cut brinjals into medium size quarters and add them to salt water. This will prevent the discoloration of cut brinjals. (An old trick, I think that all home cooks know in India.)
In a big pan, heat one teaspoon of oil and do the popu or tadka(frying 1 tsp mustard seeds and cumin), add the onions, sauté them till golden. Next add tomatoes, cook them on high heat, covered for few minutes until they soften and turn into mush.
Then, add the brinjal, potato, salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, coconut, poppy seed powder and ginger-garlic paste. Add half to one glass of water, mix them thoroughly and cook them covered on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Brinjal & Potato Curry with Rice and Boiled Egg
Our meal – Brinjal & Potato curry with rice and boiled egg

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Amma & Authentic Andhra,Potato,Vankaya (Brinjal) (Tuesday October 25, 2005 at 10:30 pm- permalink)
Comments (17)

The New Home of Mahanandi: www.themahanandi.org

17 comments for Brinjal & Potato Curry (Vankaya-Alu Pulusu) »

  1. Your brinjal and potato curry looks so delicious! Do you use a spice grinder to powder the poppy seeds? I have tried using a mortar and pestle but had difficulty in pounding them really fine. Thanks.

    Comment by Sharon — October 25, 2005 @ 11:49 pm

  2. Hi Sharon..yes, I use a spice grinder to powder the poppy seeds. The tiny ones are tough to powder in any other way.

    Comment by Indira — October 26, 2005 @ 8:16 am

  3. Nice looking curry, Indira. Is Sorghum the same as jowar?

    Comment by mika — October 26, 2005 @ 9:30 am

  4. Mika.. jowar is Hindi word for sorghum, right?

    Comment by Indira — October 26, 2005 @ 10:20 am

  5. Two posts on brinjals… you’re making it difficult for me to comment on your blog, Indira 🙁 I’m kidding… 😉 since I dont like to eat this vegetable, I’ll just say your photos are just fabulous! What camera do you use? You’re not a professional photographer, are you?

    Comment by Shammi — October 26, 2005 @ 10:47 am

  6. Seems like brinjal is the star of your kitchen these days…I have never seen a brinjal that looked like the one you had! Interesting!

    Comment by Gini — October 26, 2005 @ 11:21 am

  7. I am not sure if sorghum and jowar are the same. Jowar roti is popular in Karnataka. Wonder if sorghum roti is a kannada recipe…

    Comment by mika — October 26, 2005 @ 3:29 pm

  8. Shammi..I can understand the hatred for purple ones, but these green beauties are nothing like the purple ones(tastewise).They will make you a convert if you give them a chance.:)-
    My photos, fabulous, I don’t think so. They are ok to look at, mostly mediocre. My camera is Nikon coolpix 5400. I am not a professional, but Vijay is. But he works only with real thing(non digital), kind of purist.

    Gini..You can buy them at Thai or Vietnamese grocery shops, sometimes at Indian grocery. They are called ‘Thai Eggplants’ here.

    Mika…I googled, they are the same. Go down this Cook’s Thesaurus link, there is a photo of sorghum flour, its many names.

    Comment by Indira — October 26, 2005 @ 4:27 pm

  9. Thanks for the mouth watering recipes; All your baigan recipes are based on the small ones (like we get in India) The ones I get them from the local grocery stores are BIG – and this time I even found a WHITE BIG EGGPLANT. Could you post some recipes for BIG brinjals – including the thin ‘n’ long purple brinjals. Thanks again.

    Comment by vidya — April 12, 2006 @ 2:35 pm

  10. Hi,

    I tried this recipe today.. I must say it was fabulous.. my husband & I just loved it… I used purple brinjals instead of green ones, replaced the dry coconut powder with fresh grated coconut & I used chopped cilantro leaves instead of making a paste with Ginger & garlic… this curry is just amazing… I’m going to try some more of your recipes 🙂

    Indira replies:
    Thanks Meera.
    I didn’t have fresh coconut when I prepared this recipe.The curry tastes even much better with fresh coconut, isn’t it? 🙂
    Do let me know how you like other recipes if you try. Appreciate your feedback.

    Comment by Meera — May 4, 2006 @ 5:59 pm

  11. Hi Indira,

    Thnx 4 writing back. I’ve frozen grated fresh coconut available all the time thnx to the Indian grocery stores around here.. the curry was yummy.. In fact my husband Ashok was asking for left overs the next day.. but we had polished it off the previous day itself:) I made it up to him though with your Mint Pulao & Potato Kurma recipes… both were amazing… since then I’ve made Cracked Wheat Upma, Okra Curry & today Ponganalu (called Paddu in Karnataka.. my hubby belongs to this state)… every recipe has been a major hit with my Hubby & me… we also tried the Ragi Malt & I agree it is a fabulous alternative to caffeineted drinks..

    thnx a ton for these amazing recipes… they appeal to both my North Indian tastebuds & my hubby’s South Indian ones…

    I’m going to be trying a lot more of your recipes 🙂

    Indira replies:
    That’s great, Meera. I am glad you liked these recipes. Thanks for letting me know and looking forward to reading more of your comments on my blogged recipes.:)

    Comment by Meera — May 7, 2006 @ 1:40 pm

  12. Hi,

    i have tried this today, it looks mouth watering yet to taste it; thanks for the recipe. and want to further try all ur recipes as they all sound and look so good.

    many thanks

    Comment by Pranitha — August 28, 2006 @ 11:22 am

  13. thanks indira
    the curry turned out very yummy
    please keep posting such recipes
    thanks once again
    anjali

    Comment by anjali — October 23, 2006 @ 4:25 pm

  14. Excellent method. I hope my effort turns out tasty! Thank you.

    Comment by Malay Thakershi — January 27, 2007 @ 4:25 pm

  15. Indira, if you add milk instead of water, how do you think the curry’s gonna turn out?
    Do let me know.
    Tirelessly experimenting..
    Vidhya.

    Comment by Vidhya — March 25, 2007 @ 3:43 pm

  16. […] So I made it. First of all, it came out G*R*E*A*T and I highly recommend this curry to anyone who would like to try it. Because it is someone else’s recipe, I think the thing to do is to LINK to the website I found the recipe on, and drive traffic there. HERE is the recipe (and the photo with the egg.) […]

    Pingback by Will the Eggplant Excitement Never Stop?! or, Indian Potato and Brinjal Curry | Hungersauce — December 10, 2009 @ 1:47 am

  17. I read that Post and got it fine and informative.

    Comment by my-health-store.com — April 28, 2019 @ 7:33 am

Your Comment

(required)

(required but not published)

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

It sounds like SK2 has recently been updated on this blog. But not fully configured. You MUST visit Spam Karma's admin page at least once before letting it filter your comments (chaos may ensue otherwise).