Baingan Ka Bharta - Smoked Eggplant Curry

Ingredients:
Eggplant - 1
Onion (finely chopped) - 2
Tomato (finely chopped)  - 2
Green chilli - 1 (finely chopped) - 1
Boiled Peas - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch chopped
Garlic - 5-6 cloves chopped
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Coriander leaves - to garnish

Method:
Brush eggplant with oil and roast it on a gas burner over medium heat.
Roast till all sides of eggplant gets roasted.
Cool the roasted eggplant and peel off the blackened flesh.
Mash the fleshy eggplant.
Heat oil in a pan, fry cumin seeds, ginger, garlic and green chillies one by one.
Add onions and fry till they are golden brown.
Add tomato and all spice powders and cook till oil comes out.
Add mashed eggplant and peas and cook over low heat for another 5 minutes.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

Sesame - Puffed Rice balls (Ellu Pori Urundai)

Ingredients:
(I used the rice cooker cup for measuring)
Pori/Puffed Rice - 3 cups
Powdered Palm Jaggery/Karupaati - 1/2 cup
Water - required to dissolve palm jaggery
Cardamom powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 2 tsp

Method:
Soak palm jaggery in water and strain it for any impurities.
Heat a wide  pan. Add the strained palm jaggery and cardamom powder to it and mix well.
Stir continuously till a rolling ball consistency is achieved.
Rolling ball consistency: When jaggery syrup is dropped in a bowl of water, it should roll into a ball.
Switch off the stove.
Add the pori to the syrup and mix well.
When the heat is bearable, try shaping the pori mixture into round balls.
Roll it over roasted sesame seeds.
Crispy Pori Urundai is ready!
(Variation: Roast the sesame seeds in a wide pan, add the palm jaggery and cardamom powder to it, mix well and follow the same procedure)

Kanchipuram Idli

Recipe Source: From my very old South Indian Cookery book - published in 1983 :))

Ingredients:
Raw Rice - 2 cups
Whole Urad dal - 1 cup
Curd - 300 ml
Dry Ginger/Sukku - 1 inch piece powdered
Asafoetida - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

For tempering:
Ghee -  1-2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Pepper, Cumin - 1 tbsp
Urad dal, Channa dal - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - few
Green chillies(chopped) - 1 (optional)
Cashews - 15

Method:
Soak Urad dal and Raw rice separately for 2 hours.
Wash and completely drain water from rice and dry.
Grind rice in mixie to rawa like consistency without adding water.
Wash and grind Urad dal completely like how we grind for idli.
Mix both adding curd, dry ginger powder, asafoetida, salt and water to idli batter consistency.
Let it sit overnight for fermentation.
Next day, do tempering(heat ghee and fry all that is mentioned for tempering) and add to the fermented batter and mix well.
Grease cups with oil and pour the batter to 3/4 of the cup.
Steam for 10 minutes. If not cup, just pour it to the idli plates and steam.
Cool for few minutes.
Kanchipuram idli is ready to serve!