An exotic Andhra style rich celebration dish with smooth, warm and rich flavors. No onions or tomatoes go into its making, the main player being poppy seeds which lend the dish its body and a subtle sweet flavor. As you bite into the eggplant, you can savor layers of roasted sweet, tangy and savory flavors.
Vankaya gasagasala koora is a wonderful dish made of small variety of brinjals (Eggplants) stuffed with a exotice mixture of gasagasalu (poppy seeds) and few spices. A very simple but delectable dish prepared with hardly few ingredients but tastes striking to your taste buds asking for more.
The eggplant, also know as aubergine or brinjal is a plant from the family of the nightshades and closely related to tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. The fruit, which is used as a vegetable in cooking, is known with the same name. The plant comes originally from India and Sri Lanka, but is meanwhile cultivated in almost the whole world. Its fruit is high in nutrition and commonly consumed as a vegetable.
The fruit and other parts of the plant are used in traditional medicine. Wild brinjal plants are found in Malaysia and India. Certain indigenous varieties of the plants seem to be unique to certain parts of the world. For example, Solanum insanum, a very prickly variety of the plant, is found mostly in the dry hills of West Bengal, India.
Similarly, some yellow-fruited varieties of the plant are found growing abundantly in the wild in Malaya. The plant was first domesticated in India. The Persians then introduced brinjal to Africa from India while the Arabs introduced it to Spain. It presumably spread from Spain to the rest of Europe.
Today, the many varieties of brinjal plants are found growing throughout the warmer parts of the world. In Southeast Asia, countries where it is commercially grown include Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Brinjal fruits are commonly considered as vegetables. They are cooked in various ways.
Common cooking practices include baking, barbecuing, frying or pickling the fruits. They can also be pureed, flavored, and used as a dip or chutney as is popular in Mediterranean and Indian cuisine. In Indian cuisine, they are used in curries and even made into soufflés.
The cut fruits are soaked in cold salted water before being cooked to avoid discoloration and to remove its mild bitterness. A little similar to this dish is the exotic delicacy named the Gutti Vankai a rich Andhra curry which is smooth, warm and rich in flavors using more Indian spices.
Amazingly in this dish poppy seed is the main ingredients along with green chillies giving the spiciness, grated coconut and coriander leaves. There is no onions, tomatoes and other spices used in the making of this dish. The roasted poppy seeds lend its subtle sweet flavor to the dish. As you bite into the eggplant, you can savor layers of roasted sweet, tangy and savory flavors.
A memorable vegetarian delight that will completely floor you and crave for more! Poppy seeds a wonderful Indian spice as ground into paste and used in a lot of Indian cooking. It is normally dry roasted releasing amazing flavor and added to the gravy or the dry item.
Typically a dry dish blended well with the eggplant to make it lip smacking. Poppy seeds have a crunchy texture and a nutty flavor. They're used as a filling in various cakes, pastries and coffee cakes, as a topping for myriad baked goods, in salad dressings and in a variety of cooked dishes-particularly those originating in central Europe, the Middle East and India.
Poppy seeds can be purchased whole or ground in most supermarkets. There are also beige and brown poppy seeds, which are more commonly available in Asian or Middle Eastern markets. Because of their high oil content, all poppy seeds are prone to rancidity. They should therefore be stored, airtight, in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. The flavor of poppy seed is augmented by toasting.
For preparing this dish firstly dry roast khus khus till the rawness goes and you get good aroma on low flame. Grind khus khus, coriander leaves, and green chilies, coconut grated with some salt and little water, to make a fine paste and set aside.
Take 3 tbsp oil in pan, when hot add the ground paste and turmeric powder, fry till until all the moisture is absorbed and rawness goes. Set aside. Now take round egg plants, make slits into four quarter keeping the head (stem) intact like shown in bagara baingan recipe and deep fry in hot oil for 30 seconds and remove.
Then stuff the fried paste into the eggplants, arrange them in the pan evenly and fry for another 5 minutes in the pan till done. Sprinkle salt over the eggplants, because we have only added salt required for the stuffing.
Squeeze lime juice over each stuffed eggplant which enhances and gives a tangy and spicy flavor to the dish. Serve hot with rice. You can add cumin seeds and ginger garlic paste to suit your taste.
To prepare this dish do view the making at:
https://www.vahrehvah.com/vankaya-gasagasala-koora
Poppy seeds are great sources of taste as well as good health .They are a very good source of calcium and acts as cooling agent. Poppy seeds protect heart against cardiovascular diseases. Poppy seeds with sugar can be taken to cure insomnia. This Payasam /kheer is good for mouth blisters, cools the system and induces sound sleep.
