Eggplant with Sesame Seeds

Eggplant  and  sesame seeds  is  a wonderful dish made with long sized variety of eggplant or brinjals, stir fried with delicate aromatic Indian spices and finally topped with some roasted and crushed sesame seeds to give an excellent texture and taste to this dish. Eggplant is a versatile vegetable and commonly used in Indian cuisine and a popular ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking. Eggplant and sesame seeds  is a dry fry dish that goes very well with roti, phulkas or chapatti or can be served as a side dish along with rice, dal etc. It the delicate flavour of eggplant and sesame seeds blends well and gives an amazing nutty flavour to your palate. This is a very simple and quick stir fry to prepare. Eggplant is the perfect palette for strong flavours.

There are many ways of cooking the eggplant or brinjal. You can stuff, fry, use in salads, soups and many other delicious dishes.  The skin of eggplant is extremely absorbent to oil and other ingredients, hence is perfect for stuffing or in sauces, soup and casseroles. In India, you can get number of exotic dishes made with eggplant or brinjal using a number of regional spices. Some of the very popular recipes made with eggplant are Begun Bhaja (brinjal fry commonly prepared in West Bengal), Gutti Vankai Koora (stuffed brinjal - Andhra speciality), Spicy Eggplant slices, and Eggplant Tomato Curry etc. Eggplant or brinjal being native to India and Sri Lanka over 4000 year ago is used extensively in Mediterranean and Southern Asian cuisines.  They can be cooked in many ways: roasted, chargrilled, fried, sauteed, stewed or baked.

Eggplant is very versatile and can be also cooked with other vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, spinach etc. They blend and absorb the flavours well into them making them soft and delicious. When cooked, eggplants taste extremely delicious, are soft, creamy and just melt into your mouth. Soft and silky or smoky and full-bodied, versatile eggplants are considered a star ingredient in many cuisines around the world to add rich, smoky flavour.

In this dish, we are using the finger shaped or Asian eggplant which are the long variety and can range in colour from dark purple to striated shades. They have a tender and sweet taste. They cook fast and are best for stir fries. Til or sesame seeds is another important ingredient in this dish which enhances the flavour and gives a nice texture to the dish. Til is used mostly in seed form in Indian cooking. They are usually roasted gently and then added to the dish or crushed and added.

This helps release their aroma and flavour into the dish. Sesame seeds are thought to possess ‘heat giving’ properties and are therefore consumed more during the winter days. They are extensively used in Mughlai cuisine or north Indian style of cooking. Sesame is used in paste form to add thickenss and richess to gravies. They have a nutty, slightly sweet flavor that intensifies when toasted.

For preparing this exotic Eggplant and sesame seeds fry, firstly take a pan and add oil. When it becomes hot, add chopped onions, salt, turmeric powder, curry leaves, green chillies and fry well until the onions become translucent. Add brinjal long ones cut into pieces and cook till the brinjal is done over a slow flame. In another pan, dry roast sesame seeds and make to a coarse powder and keep aside. Once brinjal is cooked, add coriander powder, sesame seeds powder and mix well. Cook for a minute and top it off with freshly chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with roti, chapatti or rice.

Top with toasted sesame seeds and devour. It taste really good; definitely give it a try and you will truly enjoy the dish. Check on the link for the video of making of this recipe:

https://www.vahrehvah.com/eggplant-with-sesame-seeds

Tip- After slicing the eggplant, soak the eggplant pieces in salted water. Rinse with cold water and pat dry. This will remove much of the bitter taste. It is always best to cut eggplants just before using as the flesh oxidizes quickly, changing its color to brown. Enjoy Cooking!