Hi everybody, Sorry about the Elmoesque greeting! I hope your weekend was good – ours was hectic with concerts (My older daughter looked radiant as she sang in the choir), shopping for our upcoming trip to India and more people succumbing to colds and coughs – The little one is coughing and “colding” again – Have a doc appt in a couple of hours, but while she watches her daily dose of Elmo and Sesame Street, I thought I’d blog my recipe for the traditional favorite, Brinjal Rasavangi – I made this with Sepangkazhangu (tarro root) roast which i am getting set to blog as well – also I tend not to make them thick since it is not well like by my family, but you can always adjust the amount of water you use (including to wash the blender etc…)
It is very much like making Sambar the other Indian lentil soupy preparation (this explanation is for my non-Indian friends) – I have yet to put my sambar recipe on my blog and a few more rasam recipes …all in good time

Ingredients

1 cup of split peas/ toor dal/ thoram paruppu
3- 4 cups of cubed eggplant (long or small round ones – NOT the Italian big guys that are too spongy and tend to disintegrate)
1/4 cup of black eyed peas
1/2 cup of moong Vadi  or any other Karu vadaam (optional) – these are crunchy lentil preparations that can be fried and added to the lentils when it is done cooking
1-1/2 cans of diced tomatoes (I do not use any tamarind)

For the Masala
1/4 cup of grated coconut
2 teaspoons Suvaiyana South Indian Garam Masala
1 teaspoon  Suvaiyana Sambar powder (or other)

Preparation of the lentils
Pressure cook the lentils (toor and black eyed peas) and the eggplant together – Add some turmeric and a very small dollop of oil before cooking)
Next swiftly run (literally one spin) the diced tomatoes through a blender making sure it is still textured.

Combining all elements
In a soup pot, add the ground masala gravy and let it cook
When it’s boiling add the tomato puree and let it cook some more
When that is boiling, add the lentils and stir in
Allow that to boil, adding required amount of salt

In a couple of minutes, take off flame and keep

Splutter mustard seeds and the moong vadi (available in a Indian grocery stores) And some curry leaves in a tablespoon of butter.

Add to the dal. This is usually eaten with rice.