Eggplant with Pickling Spices

Ingredients: (serves 6-8 as side dish)

1. 12 small Indian eggplants
2. 3 cup thinly sliced onion
3. 2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
4. 1.5 tablespoon chili garlic paste (or garlic paste + cayenne/red chili powder)
5. 1 cup grated/pureed fresh tomato
6. 1/3 cup cooking oil (any kind you want to use) + 4 tablespoon oil (pref. pure virgin mustard oil)
7. salt
8. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
9. water as needed
10. fresh cilantro/coriander to garnish
11. a squeeze of lemon juice - optional

Pickling Spice Mix:

1. 3 teaspoon saunf/fennel seed
2. 4 teaspoon mustard seeds
3. 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
4. 1/2 teaspoon kalonji/nigella/onion seeds
5. 1/2 teaspoon methi/fenugreek seeds
6. 2-3 red dry chile pepper
7. 3 cloves
8. 1 inch cinnamon stick
9. 1 large pinch of hing/asafoetida

Method:

Heat a pan on the stove. Switch off the heat and place the spices (red chillies, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella/kalonji/onion seeds, cinnamon and cloves). This process very lightly toasts the spices. You do not want them to be overdone or browned. Cool the spices and grind coarsely; combine with the hing/asafoetida and set aside.

Make ‘X’ ( – a cross) to the flesh of the eggplants, but leave the stems intact. Immerse them completely in a big bowl of salted water and set aside for at least 30 minutes. When ready to cook, remove eggplants and squeeze out the water.

Heat oil (both mustard & vegetable/canola together, if you are using both kind) in a thick-bottomed pan.

Add onions and sauté till light brown. Add grated ginger and continue to sauté for about 7 minutes at medium heat. Lower the heat and add the coarsely ground dry spice powder. Cook for half a minute, stirring all the time so the spices do not stick to the pan.

Combine chili garlic paste with the pureed tomatoes; set aside.

Add the eggplants & cook on high heat till the outside of the eggplants start to brown on all sides. Add grated tomatoes with garlic,  the turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt to the pan and toss well till

Food Tells A Lot About The Culture Of A Country

Food is one of the things that define the culture of a country. You may tell a lot about a country by what they eat and how they do it. Because you in the times of globalization when almost every person looks similar with their satire and outer appearance there are very few ways to tell exactly about their culture. One way is to do a deep study about a culture and civilization but that takes a lot of time and is rather a boring job and if you are a traveler, you do not want to spend your time doing surveys. But, since you get to eat the food the people of the country, you are in, eat you can tell a lot about them.

When you go to a country in the west you see they like light food and usually take packed food which tells