Vankaya Pullagura (Brinjal Tamarind Curry)

Vankaya Pullagura (Brinjal Tamrind Curry) is an Andhra cuisine, which is very spicy and tangy. This dish awakens once senses because of its taste. This is a very easy recipe, as almost all the ingredients goes in one cooking pot, mashed and finally tempering done to the curry. This dish tastes better with steamed rice. In my kitchen, this curry is made for pancakes and used in the sandwiches too.


Ingredients:

1. Brinjal (round small ones) - 5 to 6 nos.
2. Green chillies - 4 to 5 nos.
3. Garlic - 3 to 4 pods
4. Tamarind - a small lemon size
5. Onions - 1 no.
6.  Tomatoes - 3 nos.
7. Curry leaves - a handful
8. Chilly powder - 1/4 tsp.
9. Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp.
10. mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
11. Oil - 2 tsp.
12. Salt to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Chop the brinjal, onions and tomatoes into chunks and keep aside. 

2. Add one tsp. oil in a cooking pot, add green chillies and fry them. Immediately add brinjal pieces followed by tomatoes, tamarind and garlic one by one. By the time all these ingredients goes one by one, every ingredient fried approximately 3 min, the brinjal would have been half cooked.

3. Add turmeric powder, corriander powder and chilly powder and give it a mix. Blend it well and add one glass warm water, and cook with covered lid.

4. Once the brinjals are cooked, mash everything.

5. In another pan add the remaining oil, curry leaves and onions (here the onions should be fryed more should be raw), and mix with the mashed brinjal curry. 

* This curry can be made with Okra (Ladies Finger) vegetable too or can mix both Okra and Brinjal for a different taste. 
* While incorporating Okras in the curry, the first step would be to fry this separately to eliminate the stickiness in this vegetable and then the recipe follows.