Bashi Musamma

For this week’s new recipe we have a really lovely curry made with stuffed eggplants.

Serves: 3 -4

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 3 tbsp. oil
• ¼ cup kanamadhu (sea almonds)
• ¼ cup raisins
• 2 eggplants (each one about 8 inches long)
• ¼ cup hanaakuri havaadhu (roasted curry powder)
• 6 tbsp. water
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 6 inch piece of raanbaa (pandan leaf)
• 10 curry leaves
• ¼ githeyo mirus (scotch bonnet pepper)
• 1 clove garlic (crushed)
• ½ tsp. grated ginger
• ½ cup sliced valhomas (smoked tuna)
• 1 cup coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion thinly.
2. Heat 1 & ½ tbsp. oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot enough, add half of the sliced onions and cook them until they turn reddish brown. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside.
3. Add the kanamadhu to the same pan. If you find the pan to be too dry, you can add a little bit more oil. Cook the kanamadhu until they start turning a bit reddish.
4. Add the raisins and cook until they puff up. At this point the kanamadhu would have taken on a deeper red. Remove the mixture from the pan and set aside.
5. In a bowl, make a paste by mixing together the hanaakuri havaadhu, ¼ tsp. salt, and the water. Remove 1 ½ tsp. of the mixture and set that aside. We are going to use that for making the curry.
6. Add the fried onion, kanamadhu and raisins to the bowl and mix them in with the spice paste.
7. Cut the eggplants into three-inch chunks. Then make three slits on every chunk. (When we made this recipe we actually had 5 chunks.)
8. Stuff the spice paste mixture into the slits using your fingers. If you have any leftover, we are going to use that in the curry.
9. Heat 1 & ½ tbsp. oil in a pot. Once the oil is hot enough, add the rest of the sliced onions along with the curry leaves, githeyo mirus and raanbaa.
10. Stir fry the mixture until the onions soften and begin to turn brown.
11. Add the ginger and garlic and stir fry for around half a minute.
12. Add the valhomas and let it cook for about 1 & ½ minutes.
13. Now add the 1 & ½ tsp. of reserved spice paste along with any leftover after stuffing the eggplant chunks. Add the coconut milk and ½ tsp. salt too. And give the mixture a good stir.
14. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat.
15. Gently place the stuffed eggplant chunks inside the pot, put the lid on and on low heat, cook the mixture until the eggplants are cooked through and that’s it. Remember to taste test before you call it done though. For us this took around 20 minutes. Also, you can’t stir the mixture after you put in the eggplants. So if you really have to stir, just pick up the pot and gently shake it.