Not Quite a Stew Good as a Side I made this purely out of curiosity because I could not begin to imagine what it would taste like. To my surprise it's pretty good! But I wouldn't really call it a stew - it's too sour (I used lime instead of tamarind - and contrary to the recipe it was a small lime) and too heavily spiced and aromatic to be eaten on its own. In fact the flavors almost completely overwhelm the taste of the eggplant so you end up concentrating only on its texture. However as a kind of pickle or chutney accompanying a curry (either meat or lentils would be nice) with a big dollop of yoghurt to the side it would be great.
Could be better I make this often though I do a few things differently. I don't ground the spices and I add curry powder (I make my own with turmeric cumin coriander seeds and hot chili powder). Also instead of putting the eggplant with the onions I saute the onions until they are slightly brown and then add some tomatoes instead of tamarind. The mixture is cooked until tomatoes turn to mush and then I add eggplant. If adding tamarind a bit of sugar is needed to counter the taste. This is best served with naan bread or tandoori Roti with a plain lentil soup (split yellow peas boiled with salt and turmeric and then tempered with black mustard seeds and asafetida.) Pros: Easy simple and fast Cons: Needs a better balance of flavors
Just submitted a comment and pressed "save" a little bit early...to finish up my comment after the word "Would " I wanted to add: (Would) like to hear others' comments and serving/preparation suggestions.
I would probably give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. Also I did not have a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and I probably didn't grind the spices quite well enough. I tasted it just before mashing and it seemed a tad on the sour side for me so I added a little bit of maple syrup to counteract that and bring back a little of the sweetness of the eggplant- just a tablespoon or so. When serving it I still felt it was lacking something so I tried a little feta cheese garnish along with the cilantro-- tasted pretty good. All in all I didn't do too much to it and it was pretty good. Might experiment further with it when I've got more time/ingredients. Would
