I am back today with a Chettinad gravy called kosamalli which goes well with Idli, Dosa, Idiyappam, sevai. This is a gravy which will make you like eggplant more 🙂 And this is not very spicy like other chettinad food. My grandma prepares it often during weekends. No one can beat her Idli’s softness and with this kosamalli its so yummy 🙂 My friend’s mom used to ask me, how do you chettiar people make such soft idli, what ever I do I am not getting it like you 🙂 I am yet to find that secret 😛 my grandma had already given a lot of suggestions, so nowadays I am getting really soft Idli, but yet if I store it for sometime, it goes a little harder and I have to microwave it 🙂 Still finding out a way to make it soft. This Kosamalli preparation is quite simple and tastes very good.
Ingredients:
Eggplant : 6 small
Potato : 2 small ( I used red potatoes)
Red Onion: 1/2 of 1 large
Thai green chili : 6 slit into 2 pieces (don’t worry, its won’t be too spicy 😛 )
Tamarind juice: 1 teaspoon
Cilantro leaves : few strand finely chopped
Oil : 1 teaspoon
salt : 1 teaspoon
To season:
Mustard Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dal : 1/2 teaspoon
Curry Leaves : few
Asafoetida/Hing : 1/8 teaspoon
Method:
First chop eggplant and potato. You can either pressure cook or cook directly. I prefer pressure cooking as it is fast. Pour water just to cover the eggplant , potato and cook. I pressure cooked it for 3 whistles. Let it cool down, then mash it well using potato masher. Add salt now and mix well.
Next heat oil in a pan, add items in to season, when they crackle, add chopped onions and slit green chili. After 2 mins, add the mashed eggplant and potato. Add some water because that would be thick. Add the tamarind juice. Check for the taste. If needed you can add more salt or tamarind juice.
Just heat it for 3 to 4 mins as the vegetables are already cooked. Add cilantro leaves and serve it with Idli/Dosa/Idiyappam.
The tamarind juice must be very less, the quantity of juice used must be less than what we use for sambar. Otherwise it would become very tangy and the taste would be spoiled.
Malar's Kitchen 