Never heard of a brinjal? Don’t worry. That’s what the ‘Chinese eggplant’ is called in the Indian subcontinent. There are several strains of this from small round brinjals to those which are known as the Chinese eggplant in the US. Different styles of cooking about and every state and region in India swears by their local style as being the best.
Regardless, this vegetable is loved throughout the land. To keep things simple let us take it slow. And start with ONE brinjal. How does it look? See below…
Now that we know how this looks like – let’s get on with the project. A Chutney is like a dip – like Guacamole or Baba Ganoush or Queso or like a condiment times 100,000.
Usually made of fresh vegetables, or parts of a vegetable that are not used in a regular dish, the leftover parts are usually sauteed and mixed with red or green chillies – maybe some garlic and ground to a coarse or smooth paste and served as a dip. Zero Waste, anybody? Efficient use of all the vegetables and it’s tasty with a zing!
I found a lone Brinjal which was left out of a main dish – so I decided to put it to good use.
The pictures below show the ingredients and the preparation – no recipe really necessary – you can change the main vegetable – leave out the onions – add a few squeezes of lime at the end, increase or decrease the number of Chillies you add – you get the idea. Make it to match your tastes. Let’s see what I did.
Technically all you need 
Chop the brinjal into course pieces 
Slice up one red onion 
6-8 normal sized cloves of garlic or equivalent 
Handful of dried red chillies – or less 
Heat coconut oil throw in cumin and mustard seeds 
Add in mixed lentils lower heat 
Let them roast till golden brown 
Almost there keep mixing 
Add in the dried red chillies 
Keep mixing we want them to roast well 
Add Garlic – better whole so they have that bite left 
saute 
Add onions 
break up the clumps 
Add chopped brinjal 
add some turmeric 
Mix it well, lower heat 
Cover and simmer 
Check and mix 
Keep it covered 
We want the brinjal to cook a bit 
Cover again 
Looking good 
Brinjal is half glassy – ready now 
Set up your trusty blender with a glass jar 
Looks ready to me 
Add to glass jar – avoid plastics man 
Give it a couple of spins might need to add half a cup water 
Looks done to me 
Kind of like this
Now, being the good stewards of cooking that we are, we cannot serve anything without a nice garnish – something which will add some pizazz to the dish. Ok, No Jazz hands needed we will add some jazz in the garnish.
Same old hot coconut oil 
After the cumin, mustard and split lentils have roasted add red chillies till roasted 
Step back and throw in some Curry leaves 
Let them become crip – turn off heat
Putting it together…Transfer the pureed chutney into a serving dish and add the garnish to the top. Here are some different points of view.
Close up on the Red Chilli 
Ahh look at all those lentils
Serve on rice, or just as a dip with organic tortilla chips or however you want. You can even use this as a nice smear (Schmear?) on bread for a nice panini – the choices are limitless. Enjoy! Don’t forget to let me know how it came out. Baba Ganoush? Already left the town, can’t handle this competition. (Sorry)