Eggplant marsala

It has been a long while since I dine in an Indian restaurant. Ahh.... I missed those crispy thin dosai and chunky marsala dosai, and most of all, I missed the fish head curry of little India. In fact, dining out anywhere is difficult as we are always looking at our watches for the next feeding time for our little cherub. We have not attempted to feed her outside since started weaning her. So I guess it would be so for a while more before we are able to resume our support for the F&B industry.

So in order to stave off our craving for something indian, I chose to make Eggplant Marsala as a side dish for our dinner. It is a nice vegeterian dish and relatively easy to make. I said relative cos the cooking is easy, but the buying of spices require some hunting, but definitely worth the effort. The recipe is as follows if you are interested to try.

Here is the recipe:

3 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 slender Asian eggplants, halved and cut into lengths
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp tamarind pulp mashed in 4 tbsp water, squeezed and strained to obtain juice

1. Heat oil in wok over med heat and cook the mustard seeds until they pop, abt 1 min. Add the cumin seeds and gently stir fry for 1 min. Add onion and garlic, and stir fry until light golden brown, abt 5 min.

2. Add the eggplants, chili powder, coriander, turmeric and salt, and stir fry for 1 min. Then add the tamarind juice, reduce the heat and simmer until the eggplants are tender, abt 7 min. Serve immediate with freshly cooked riece