Tuesday, August 1, 2006

GBP 3 - Eggplant Story

The first time I cast my eyes on an Eggplant here in the US, was completely taken aback. It looked like Ben Johnson on steroids, it took a few more months before I got the guts to try it out. Now don't get me wrong it is a fine vegetable and where you need a lot of flesh like for Baingan Bartha it is absolutely essential. Thank God for Saroj's Cookbook which taught me a lot of tips and essential details of Indian Cooking, those early days when I had absolutely no idea what Indian cooking was all about. Anyway the Indian Eggplants that I got in the Grocery Stores Indian or American were never fresh, it is the case even now, when there are four Indian grocery stores where there used to be one.

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Growing Pains

So I had this intense desire to grow eggplants on my own, even if I can enjoy fresh eggplants just for few months during the summer. It took all of 3 summers before I actually got eggplants. The first year the plant was eaten by insects, the second year by the time the plants started to flower cold weather set in I got maybe 2 small eggplants. The third year I came upon this marvellous idea to grow eggplants in pots rather than put them in the ground. Voila I hit paydirt I had a sizeable harvest of eggplants and also the insects don't harm it that much when they are in pots. I have heard that in India, it is one plant that gets soaked in pesticides because it gets attacked by a lot of pests. I do not use pesticides, I occasionally spray soap, chilly powder mixture over the plants, seem to work.

This year I have 2 varieties of eggplants one long purple variety and the other the more common short purple round variety. The eggplant plant floweres are 2 kinds, one that goes on to bear fruit the other that dries up and withers. Eggplant is native to India and requires very hot climate to grow.

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Eggplant Chickpeas

I cooked Eggplant-Chickpeas from Indira's Mahanandi and ofcourse with the fresh crunchiness of the eggplant and the tender softness of the chickpeas the curry tasted great.

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This will be an entry for InjiPennu's Green Blog Project.

13 comments:

  1. Oh boy! eggplants from your own backyard the curry must have tasted great huh?

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  2. Oh! Great! Superb! Thank you soo much! I am going to be dizzy seeing so many plants and recipes! Hope I will be 'strong' enough for the round up! :-)

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  3. KA defintely nothing like fresh picked vegetables.
    injipennu you are very welcome, my pleasure!

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  4. they looks so fresh and lively and love that "muram" with egg plants...

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  5. Hi ISN,
    yummy eggplant recipe with your own grown "VANKAYALU" is called eggplant in telugu.
    Good going.
    Vineela

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  6. Kitchenmate
    welcome, the cute little muram is my daughter's, borrowed it for a few minutes...
    Vineela
    thanks.

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  7. my first time at ur site and i loved the eggplants,pandal, and the cauveri snaps. very nostalgic.. i too had a tough time with eggplants.. can u tell me in detail how to use the soap powder and red chilli powder?i used a neem extract and that worked too, but this sounds interesting.

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  8. shaheen, I do not plant the eggplants directly in the ground keep them in pots.

    Just take about 1 tbsp of hand soap, 1 tbsp of chilly powder(gun powder) and pour about 2 cups of water and spray the plants with the lather. For convenience I do the mixing itself in a sprayer.

    This will keep the insects off the plants for 3-4 days, I usually do this when the plants are young and starting to grow, once they mature do it if you see too many insects sitting on the plant and causing damage.

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  9. Eggplants look gorgeous. Wow !! this is your third entry ? I am still struggling to put together my first one :-(

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  10. Those plants looks beautiful Indo and the curry looks delicious !

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  11. Oh no I dont like eggplants !

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  12. thanks indu.
    my eggplants are bathing in ur gun powder recipe. their leaves were showing small dot like holes today.. any clues?
    thanks again

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  13. Hey your comment on eggplants with muscles like Ben johnson made me laugh out real loud-can't stop laughing actually, fantastic sense of humor and I admire the pains you've taken to grow them on your own :)

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