Vankaya Perugu Pachadi -- Baingan Raita

As I told in my earlier posts Baingan or Vankaya or eggplant is the king of vegetables. Any recipe with it tastes really good. This is a very simple recipe. We get huge eggplants in this winter season, I love to make best use of them by making chutney, bharta, pulusu pachchadi and this raita.
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Recipe Category: Side dish
Recipe Cuisine: Andhra
Serves: 5 people

Ingredients:

• Fresh curd - 250 ml
• Eggplant/Big Vankaya/Big Baingan - 1 
• Green Chillies - 3 to 5
• Salt - to taste

For Tadka:

• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin Seeds -1 tsp
• Black Gram - 1 tsp
• Red Chillies - 2
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Curry Leaves - 5 to 7
• Corinader Leaves - fist full

Procedure:

1. Chop the green chillies, corinader leaves. 
2. Wash eggplant and apply oil on it. Roast it on stove top. 
3. Some people cook this in the microwave but I prefer to cook it on stove top only. It tastes very good. 
4. Turn it repeatedly while cooking, so that the entire eggplant will cook properly. 
5. Allow this to cool and remove the skin. Mash it with hands. Keep it aside.
6. Add salt, chopped chillies and coriander leaves. Add curd also.
7. Heat oil in a pan, add all the ingredients under 'For Tadka'. 
8. Allow them to crackle and add it to the above mashed eggplant. Mix well.
9. That's all Vankaya Perugu Pachchadi/ Baingan Raita is ready to serve. Serve it with rice or roti.