Although Gutti Vankaya or Stuffed brinjal can be done in a myriad ways, most recipes call for the same ingredients, except for minute differences here and there. Well, for me Noone Vankaya, as people from Ananthapur dist call it, is the best soul food that I can ever find. Usually this noononkaya is eaten with the crispy sadda rotte (Jowar rotti) made fresh on a heavy cast iron pan. Now when I look back into my childhood days, I am struck withe awe. Mom used to make fresh Sadda rotti/Biyyam rotti and noonevankaya to go with it by 7:45am, even before we were ready to go to school. I can never be her atleast in regards to the pace she kept while cooking, but I try keep her in my thoughts every way of my life, cooking being one of the important ones. Well nostalgia aside, here is the recipe for the noone vankaya!
Ingredients needed :
small brinjals 1/2 kg
onion 1/2 medium sized, sliced length wise
tamarind lime sized soaked in water
For the tiragavata/seasoning:
oil
mustard seeds
curry leaves
For the stuffing:
Dried red chillies: 8-9
cumin: 1tspn
dhania seeds : 2 tspns
sesame seeds: 3 tbspn
groundnut: 3 tbspn
dry coconut: 3 tbspn
garlic : 4 pods peeled
salt : 1 tspn
Jaggery or brown sugar : 1 tspn
Procedure
Fry the ingredients in half tspn oil except for the garlic, and jaggery part. Grind all the ingredients into a fine powder. Hmm...you can smell the garlic, the jeera, sooooo aromatic...
Now slit the brinjals into + with the stalk intact, and put them in cold water. Stuff the brinjals with the special powder. In a pressure cooker pan, add 2 tbspn oil, wait till it gets hot, add the mustard and curryleaves followed by onions. Fry them for 1 or 2 min, and then add the stuffed brinjals, fry them till they are a bit brown in color, at this point add the tamarind water, make sure it is not too liquidy, and fry the brinjals a bit more probably 5 more minutes, they will be sizzling and doing all the swish sounds.Now add a cup of water, close the lid, and wait for just one whistle. Take the cooker from the heat, release the pressure, garnish with cilantro,this is just an addition, it will still be as tasty even sans cilantro.
There, you have a mouthwatering favorite!! Another great dish unique to rayala seema, with the main seema ingredient " ground nut".
You can have this with rice/chapathi but if you can sadda rotti will be the best combination for this curry! You will not regret it, I swear.
