Also Known As:  Brinjal Serva – North Arcot Muslim Style,  Egg-Plant Serva. Kathirikkai Serva. Baingan ka Salan. Kathirikkai Ellu Kuzhambu. Biriyani Side Dish – Brinjal Curry.

Brinjal serva makes an excellent side dish for Nawabi biriyani or Arcot Biriyani. It may sound bit odd for some of you who haven’t yet sampled yet this combo!  So, ‘Brinjal with Biriyani’ it is ! I never saw this side outside of the this particular region…that is found only at North Arcot belt! Where Nawabs were ruling for the small time!

The popular unique dish comes out with bit variation in all these places…Arcot, Vellore, Amboor / Ambur and Vaniyambadi. The specialty lies in the powdered spices, with slight variation to every region.

However, I believe the mind-blowing taste is from the locally raised a rare-breed of brijals! Oh yeah, these eggplants or brinjal themselves are so bigger, with heavy thorns and it never melts down into puree in the curry…even after cooking for several minutes! Thus, making the curry highly flavorful.

Ingredients:

• Vellore brinjal 1/2 kg (all equal sizes)
• Whole pepper 1/4 tsp
• Mustard 1/4 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
• Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves 3 twigs
• Green chilies 3 slitted
• Ginger-garlic paste 1 tsp
• Onion paste 1 cup
• Tomato puree 2-3 cups
• Tamarind paste thick just 1/2 tsp
• Black sesame seeds- powdered 1 cup
• Salt
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
• Red chili powder 1 tsp
• Gingili / sesame oil 1 cup

Preparation:

1. Make 2 slits in brinjal (eggplant)and set it aside in water…as brinjal turns dark when exposed. One can add little salt/lemon juice to the water to avoid coloration.

2. Now in a heavy bottomed pan pour oil and add the spices one by one…mustard, cumin, pepper, fenugreek seeds, green chilies and curry leaves.

3. Then add onion and ginger-garlic paste. Fry them till its raw odor is all gone . Then followed tomato puree…fry until water content evaporates and oil shows up in the top.

4. Now add salt, turmeric, chilly powder and brinjal semi-cook them without adding water. Continue cooking  by adding tamarind water. The whole process should be done on low flame and preferably covered. As the gravy bubbles a lot…it may spoil your stove top, take care.

5. When brinjal is almost cooked add sesame powder and bring it to boil.

6. Garnish with few crisply fried curry leaves.

It makes excellent side dish for mughalai biryani…or can be served with any mild pulao too.