Mashed Eggplant Curry is one of the popular vegetarian dishes of India served as main course with flat bread or rice. Raw eggplant (Brinjal) is grilled over fire, and mashed after removing the burned out skin. Then it is cooked with other ingredients to form the curry. The grilling of eggplant over fire infuses a smoky flavor to the dish and adds additional taste different from normal eggplant curry.

This instructable will guide you on how to cook Mashed Eggplant Curry at your home.

Step 1: Grill the Eggplant Over Fire

The dish prepared with about 500 grams Eggplant will serve 4 to 5 people.

Grill each and every eggplant separately over fire or charcoal till the skin is fully burned and becomes black.
You can use your normal gas stove also. You can place more than one eggplant on the gas stove if there is enough space.
Turn eggplant over fire from time to time so that all sides are grilled evenly
Keep the fully grilled eggplant in a plate to cool

Step 2: Remove Burned Out Skin

Once the grilled eggplants are cooled down, remove the burned out outer skin from them. It is very easy, the skin will come off just by pressing with your fingers
Wash the skinned eggplants in water and keep separate
You can discard the outer skin removed from the vegetables.

Step 3: Mash the Grilled Eggplant

The grilled eggplant can be mashed by hand or you can use a mixer grinder to mash them
Cut the grilled eggplants into pieces and place them in a mixer grinder jar
Make a rough paste and keep aside

Step 4: Other Ingredients

The following ingredients are required to make the dish

2 Medium sized onions
3 to 4 Tomatoes
Few cloves of Garlic
A lemon sized piece of Tamarind
An inch long piece of Ginger
A teaspoon of Mustard seeds mixed with split Black-gram lentils
4 to 5 dried red chilies
A bunch of Curry leaves

Step 5: Prepare the Ingredients

Chop onion into fine pieces and keep aside
Dice tomatoes and keep aside
Remove skin from Ginger and chuck garlic
Make Ginger garlic paste using a mixer grinder and keep aside

Step 6: Make Tamarind Juice

Place the lemon sized piece of Tamarind in warm water for about five minutes
Firmly press the soaked tamarind piece with your fingers in water
Filter out the tamarind juice and discard the remains

Step 7: Preparation Step 1

Place a frying pan over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
Once the oil is heated, add the Mustard seeds.
Break the dried red chilies into pieces and add to the oil
Add the curry leaves. Take care, the raw curry leaves will splatter in the hot oil
Now add the onions and Ginger garlic paste to the pan

Step 8: Preparation Step 2

Once the raw smell has disappeared from the mix in the pan, add diced tomatoes
Add salt to taste and also add half a teaspoon of Asafoetida powder
Saute till the water content evaporates from the mix

Step 9: Preparation Step 3

Add the mashed eggplant to the pan and mix well
Add the tamarind paste to the mix.
Also add 2 cups of water to the pan as we will cook it for some more time till raw smell from the eggplant disappears

Step 10: Finish and Serve

Place a lid on the frying pan and cook till raw smell from eggplant paste disappears
Transfer the eggplant curry to a serving pan and garnish with coriander leaves

This dish is served as main course with flat bread and rice.