Brinjal Theeyal Recipe | Brinjal Gravy

Theeyal is a kerala dish and another famous south indian side dish like sambar. Instead of dal, roasted coconut, coriander, red chilli and fenugreek is grounded and added in tamarind water along with vegetables. Theeyal means "Burnt" , it gets its name from brownly roated coconut added in the recipe. Theeyal can be made using different vegetables like onion shallots, brinjal/eggplant,potato, bitter gourd etc.

Browned coconut gives a unique taste and flavor to this dish. This goes well with rice, idly, dosa. This is made in all parts of Kerala and they include this dish in sadya in some parts of kerala. Instead of making sambar all the time we can try this different side dish for rice and enjoy the unique taste of this dish

Brinjal Theeyal   |  Brinjal Gravy Recipe Cuisine: Kerala |  Recipe Category: Gravy Prep Time:  5 minutes   |  Cook time: 15 minutes    |  Serves: 4 BRINJAL – ½ KG ONION SHALLOTS – 10 NOS GARLIC – 5 NOS TAMARIND – GOOSEBERRY SIZE COCONUT OIL – 2 TBLSPN SALT – TO TASTE TO GRIND GRATED COCONUT – 1 ¼ CUP FENUGREEK SEEDS – 1 TSPN CUMIN SEEDS – 1 TSPN FENNEL SEEDS - 1 TSPN PEPPER – 1 TSPN RED CHILLI POWDER – 1 TBLSPN CORIANDER POWDER – 2 TBLSPN TURMERIC POWDER – ½ TSPN ONION SHALLOTS – 5 NOS TEMPERING COCONUT OIL – 2 TBLSPN MUSTARD – ½ TSPN CUMIN SEEDS – ½ TSPN RED CHILLI  - 2 NOS CURRY LEAVES - FEW GARNISH GHEE | COCONUT OIL - 1 TBLSPN

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

1. Dry roast the given ingredients

2. Add onion shallots and grated coconut roast it till golden color then add red chilli powder,coriander powder, turmeric powder mix it well for 1 minute switch off the flame. 

3.Keep the mixture aside until it cools to room temperature, the grind it to a fine paste. Prepare tamarind extract and chop brinjals as cubes and add it into a bowl of water so that the color doesn't change. 

4. Add oil in pan and temper the given ingredients then add onion shallots and saute it then add brinjals and shallow fry it (saute it) till color changes.

 6.Then add tamarind extract, salt and cook it till raw flavor is gone

6.Simultaneously take another pan add oil 2 tblspn coconut oil and saute the grounded paste

7. Now add the paste and add  2 cups of water

8. Close it with a lid and cook it till the oil get separated from corners of the pan 

9. Serve Brinjal theeyal hot with rice served with Mor Kuzhambu. It is also best combination for idly dosa, Chappathi.

Note

• Instead of cooking the grounded mixture separately you can saute it in the brinjal mixture and then add the tamarind mixture in the pan. Grounded mixture has to sauted in the oil to give nice flavor.
• I have prepared as a side dish to rice as spicy thick gravy. If you want to use it as a side dish to breakfast then you can decrease the spice and add 1 cup of water
• You can make this with yam or plaintain green or potatoes instead of brinjal
• If onion shallots not available big onions can be used. Of course the taste has to be compromised.