Pan-fried, Gluten-free Whole Eggplant Vegetables

This is one way of cooking whole eggplant vegetables stuffed with spices. The stuffed eggplants are shallow fried in a pan which makes it very tasty and spicy.

This gluten free dish can be served as main course with rice

• About 300 grams of fresh Eggplant vegetables
• One teaspoon of cumin seed powder
• One teaspoon of fennel seed powder
• One and half teaspoon of coriander powder mixed with turmeric powder
• One and half teaspoon of red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• Oil for shallow frying

• Rinse and clean the Eggplant vegetables. Do not remove the stems
• From top make two cuts diagonally to reach just above the stem portion of vegetables. Do not cut all the way down. The vegetable should remain whole with stems
• After cutting, open the cut and check for worm infection. If there are worms, discard the vegetable.
• Immediately place the cut eggplants in water to prevent discoloration.

• Mix all spices like cumin seed powder, fennel seed powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder with turmeric powder and salt to make a uniform spice mixture
• Stuff the spice mix inside each of the cut eggplant vegetable and keep in a bowl
• Put the remaining spice powder on top of the stuffed vegetables in the bowl and coat the outer surface also

• Add enough cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat
• When the oil is heated add the stuffed eggplants one by one into the oil
• Allow one side to shallow fry without disturbing. Otherwise the stuffed spices may fall out.
• Turn over the vegetables in the pan with a ladle or strainer

• Once all sides of the outer surface of eggplants are partially cooked, cover the pan with a lid and keep over low flame. This will make the inside of vegetables to cook even without burning the outer skin
• From time to time, remove the lid and rotate the vegetables for even cooking
• Check a piece to see that the inside is cooked and not raw

Once all the eggplant vegetables are properly fried, remove from the pan to a serving bowl. the pan fried eggplant vegetables are spicy and can be served with rice as main course