BHARLI WANGI
Stuffed baby eggplants with coconut and tamarind
This is another Marathi recipe from Indian Kitchen by Maunika Gowardhan. You make a paste from peanuts, coconut, cilantro, toasted coriander seeds, garlic, chile powder, tamarind, sugar, and a little water and then stuff it into baby eggplants that have been split into quarters but not cut all the way through at the stem. The eggplants are fried briefly in oil and then removed. The remainder of the paste is fried in the pan with split green chiles for a bit, water added, and then the eggplants returned to simmer until soft. Add salt to taste. Garnish with more cilantro and desiccated coconut.
I think my eggplants were bigger than the ones she used in the book, so I ended up cooking them in the sauce for about 35 minutes total (I carefully flipped them about halfway through). Otherwise, I followed the recipe pretty much as written. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the sauce thickened up, because at the 15 minute mark it was very loose. This recipe serves 4, so I am very much looking forward to leftovers later this week!
