Vaingana (eggplant) Kappa

This is very easy and dry side dish which goes with rice and ‘dali thoy’ (lentil soup). Very suitable for light lunch or dinner. Tastes good in the cold weather :)

Ingredients :

1 - Eggplant (big, round and purple one)
2 – tbsp rava
1 – tbsp red chili powder
a dash of garam masala
salt to taste and oil to cook

Method :

Cut the eggplants into round 5mm thick slices. Add salt mix well and keep aside for 10 mins. Meantime, in a flat plate mix rava, red chili powder and garam masala. Heat a wide tava and smear oil on to it. Apply the dry rava mixture to the eggplant pieces like below :

And place them on the tava one by one. Sprinke few drops of water on each eggplant slice. Cook covered. Then put few drops of oil on each slice and turn them over to cook on the other side.
Cook till the eggplant slices are golden and cooked. Serve hot with rice and ‘dali thoy’. You can even serve with rice and tomato saru (another type of spicy hot soup).

The same can be made with potatoes and it is called 'Batate Kappa' :).

Mumbri

This is very easy and simple breakfast. My mother always made this for breakfast and packed it for my lunch also. It was a tasty and non-messy lunch for me to carry when I was in the college.

Ingradients :

2 cups rava (coarsely powdered wheat)
2 cups water
2 small green chilies – finely chopped
few twigs of cilantro – coarsely chopped
4 curry leaves – coarsely chopped
1 small tomato – finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil/Ghee to fry

Method :

In a wide bowl mix all the ingredients except oil. Add water to make very thick batter which looks like below :
Keep aside for 5 mins to allow the rava to absorb water. Heat a wide tava (flat iron pan), smear half tsp of oil on to it. Put a small portion of the batter and spread it in the shape of pancake like below :
Cook on both sides till golden. Serve hot with ghee (clarified butter) or any type of chutney of your choice. You can use ghee for frying instead of oil so that you don't have to serve with ghee and can reduce the fat content.