Grandma’s Chutta Kathirikai Kotsu / Smoked Eggplant & Chillies Cooked in a Tangy Tamarind Sauce – Zero Oil Recipes

Nobody can beat grandma’s cooking right? Simple yet delicious. You don’t need exotic spices or heavy machinery to produce super delicious meals. You only need a old specialist cook to assist you or even cook for you the simplest dishes that taste so unique. Kotsu is one of her speciality dishes, because it is tangy, spicy yet so flavourful dish made with brinjal. I have my way of making kotsu, i have posted that recipe here before. But this is her way way of doing it, so simple but so flavourful.

Specially this Kotsu, it doesn’t call for any ingredients that is fancy. Just simple stuff that are cooked on open flame to get its maximum flavour. The highlight of this recipe is you can cook this with zero oil. My grandma doen’t use spoon or masher for this, she just uses her hand to do all the mixing. That is really a rustic way of cooking.. Hope you will try out and let me know how it turned out for you.

Preparation Time : 20 mins for charring veggies
Cooking Time : 15 to 20 mins
Serves – 4 to 5


Ingredients:

Brinjal – 2
Dry Red Chillies – 4 to 5
Asafoetida / Hing / Kaya Podi – 1/2 tsp
Tamarind – 1 small lemon size
Salt to taste

Method:

Take brinjal and clean them well. Now cook them on open flame till it is nicely charred and cooked on all sides. Cook on a medium flame so it gets evenly charred and cooked. Immerse them in cold water so it gets cooled and you can peel the skins off easily. Mash them well and set aside.

Now cook the chillies on open flame too till it is charred. Set them aside.

Soak tamarind in some water and mash them well with your hands. 

Pour the strained tamarind juice over mashed brinjal and mix well.

Add in salt and asafoetida.

Pour this mixture over a heavy bottom kadai. Boil them till it is reduced and thickened.

Serve.


Pictorial:

Take all your ingredients

Start by cooking brinjal on open flame

That’s my grandma, she is so focused

Cook till it is nicely charred

Soak the brinjal in water

Peel the skins off

Mash them up

Now take some dry red chillies and roast them in flame as well

Till they are nicely charred

Take tamarind in a bowl

Soak them in water

And use your century old hands to mash them up

Pour the tamarind water over the brinjal

Mash them well with hands

Add in charred red chillies too

Add a touch a asafoetida and salt

Mix well

All done

Add this to a kadai

Boil till it is reduced and thickened

Like this

Serve