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27th
JUN
JFI:Eggplant - Kaththarikkai Paththiyak kari [Eggplant Special Medicinal Diet Curry]
Posted by Mathy Kandasamy | Filed under Black Pepper, Fenugreek, Coriander, Eggplant, Cumin, Coconut Milk, Jihva For Ingredients(JFI), Sri Lankan, Curries, Archives
Paththiyak kari - Special medicinal diet curry
Kaththarikkai - Eggplant
“???? ???????” - Food is Medicine. Nothing personifies this more than the special medicinal diet curry. Special diets are advised in Siddha Medicine. It consists of certain “do’s and dont’s” These rules vary depending on the ailment and the treatment. The curry I’m talking about does not fall into that category. In Sri Lanka, we call it ‘???????? ???’ - Paththiyak kari. This is usually prepared if anybody is sick. Or, if a girl got her first period. Or, if a pregnant woman gave birth.
There are several variations to this ‘Paththiyak kari’. That would drive away the boredom of having to eat this kari for about a month, when you get your first period. Or for a week, if your family is indulgent. Only particular vegetables like tender drumstick, eggplants or fish could be used to prepare ‘Paththiyak kari’ and even though, it tends to taste the same, there are subtle differences.
Several spices are toasted seperately and then ground in an ammi(back in Sri Lanka), ground in a spice jar or bought in a store(In Canada, Europe and Australia). I vaguely remember my grandmother toasting the spices and then using the ammi to grind them. She would add the tough spices first and would sprinkle some water on them and stand moving the heavy rolling pin like stone over them. Once those spices gets maneagable, other spices would be added and finally little coconut would be added. The whole mixture would then be rolled into a ball form and deposited into the waiting bowl. The ammi would then be cleaned with a little water and that would also go into the bowl.
Since there’s no ammi here. Coffee grinder could be used to powder the spices. 
Special herbal spice curry powder[Paththiyath thool]
1. Corriander seeds - 3 teaspoon
2. Cumin seeds - 3 teaspoon
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1 teaspoon
4. Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon (could be reduced)
5. Red Chilli - 1 (Optional)
6. turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon (usually dry turmeric root is used)
Roast each and every spice except turmeric powder until they start emitting their special aroma. Let them cool down. Grind to a fine powder in the coffee grinder. Store the powder in a tight lidded container. Use within a month or so. The powder could be kept longer, but it would lose it’s potency and time goes by.
Now lets go to the eggplants!
The love Sri Lankan Tamils have for eggplants has to be seen, to be believed. For some, vegetables=eggplants, eggplants=vegetables. And eggplant saplings are bought by the hundreds here in Canada. Even back in Sri Lanka, Eggplants or Brinjals as they are known are given prime locations in the home gardens. So, I was not particularly surprised to learn that Eggplant is native to Southern India and Sri Lanka. [Wiki]
And we train them young. Taken couple of years ago, in one of those pick yourself farms on the Eastern Townships near Montreal.
Recipe:
2 purple eggplants - cut ino 1/2 inch pieces
4 shallots - sliced
10 garlic pods - chopped into two
1-2 green chillies (avoid for lactating mothers) - sliced into too
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin
5-6 curry leaves
2-3 teaspoons special herbal curry powder[Paththiyath thool] (I like it spicy. so i use 3 teaspoons. 2 is more moderate. could be reduced too)
2 cups water (1.5 for thicker gravy)
salt
1/2 cup coconut milk (1/4 is more moderate and is good for truly medicinal purposes. But in general more coconut milk could be added)
1-2 teaspoon indian sesame oil/ Gingelli oil
In a pan, assemble the following ingredients - eggplants, shallots, garlic, green chillies(if using), fenugreek seeds, cumin, curry leaves, special curry powder and water. It would take about 15 minutes for the eggplants to cook thoroughly. Add salt according to taste and add coconut milk. Let it boil for another 2-3 minutes.
This curry is best served hot/warm with rosematta rice. The next best choice is par-boiled rice.
Those eagle-eyed people would have noted that even though sesame seed oil is listed in the ingredients, it’s not used in the recipe above! Gingelli oil or Indian Sesame oil is very necessary. But only after the curry is cooked.
In your plate, serve rice and pour this ‘Paththiyak kari’ on top. Make a well. Ladle some Indian Sesame seed oil. Or you could spoon in the sesame oil to the curry itself and mix thoroughly just before serving.
It is absolutely necessary to use only the Indian Sesame oil and not the Sesame oil available in South East Asian stores. The South Asian Sesame oil is produced in a different manner. Sesame oil from Middle-east also taste like the Indian variety. This dish is incomplete without Sesame oil. Sesame oil is supposed to build strength. Sesame oil contains high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids. And Sesame oil is a good source of vitamin E. Sesame oil is called as ‘Nalla ennai’ in Tamil. Meaning ‘Good oil’. For medicinal properties of Sesame oil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_oil#Medicinal_Uses.
Note: This goes to Sangeetha for JFI-Eggplant
Comment: I added Sesame oil to the curry itself, just before serving. That’s why you could see a layer of oil in the first picture.
Note: Some of our dishes are so difficult to photograph. Ain’t they?!
The taste is noway comparable to the presentation!
your presentation is great, mathy. i can smell the dish from here.
Mathy, recently i had a srilankan version of coconut rice made with rose matta rice and cut into squares like cake.. do u have a recipe for that?
Looks very good and a very informative post. Have to try this..
very beautiful pictures,Mathy.which camera do you use?I loved the spice powder picture;Looks so fresh and nice.Eggplant is one vegetable to which pictures donot do justice at all.
You can probably consider zooming out a little bit. And for these gravy type dishes you can pour them in a bowl and try taking the shot. Just a few helpful hints
Hi Mathy,
Thanks for sharing Paththiyath thool. That looks delicious. I have been looking for Paththiyath thool. Your timing is just right!!
mathy that eggplant in the field is great…such bigs one you get at your place is it?..very nice…
thanks of course for the informative post…
Srivalli
www.cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com
thankyou for the recipe mathy, It looks absolutely delicious and my parents to this day use sesame oil for everyday cooking. It helped me overcome my asthma too..
Your dish looks so fresh and the pic really makes it come alive. Make me was to roll up my sleeves and start mixing the curry and rice with my hands!
Guys, thanks a lot for your tips and encouragements.
Srivalli: Yes, they do get big. But, big is not always better. right? We are looking for local organic pickyour own farms. But the picking is very very slim for farms that grow Asian vegetables. Let’s see..
Thanks guys.
-Mathy
Hi Mathy,
Firstly, please note that I have changed my e-mail address.
Next to the delicious looking eggplant curry. Can’t wait to try it. (Only thing, is that I may have to get the children to acquire a taste for the gingelly oil!!) Oh my! those egg plants in the picture looks so good - I kinda reached out to the screen to pick them! Is that you in the picture, Mathy?
My children hate vegetables but love my eggplant curry. Not boasting, but I have been told by many that it is good but my husband does not eat it! Why because I deep fry it first. He is a nurse and is very health conscious! He loves eggplant and eats it only if I simply cook it with some cumin, turmeric, a bit of chillie powder and coconut milk. Yes, Mathy, I have spoilt this family of mine. One should never show off to family that you can cook - they all become so picky then (smile).
I am sure that you too cook eggplant like I do, deep-frying first. I have two recipes. One is what a good Tamil friend of mine taught me and another is what my mother did at home when she prepared lamprais. I am sure you know what this is. Food prepared and then parceled in banana leaf and baked. The aroma that comes out of it when the parcel is opened is just amazing! My children call it leaf rice. If you are invited to a lamprais meal, consider yourself an honoured guest! The preparation is so time consuming. Just washing and cleaning the frozen banana leaf itself is a tremendous job. I will never eat food from any one who gives me food in a banana leaf. They are soooooooo dirty. And, I trust only myself to do a good cleaning job of the leaf!!!
Cheers and have a great weekend.
Olive
Brinjals are my favourite veggie, and it’s no surprise, because I’m Tamil
. Medicinal or not, this dish looks pretty damn tasty!
We use the gingelly oil for rasam also, do you all do that? To me rasam doesn’t taste quite the same without the gingelly oil; it needs that distinctive flavour or it’s not rasam as I know it. And I know that when a girl gets her first period, there are many different gingelly-oil preparations suggested. Our family isn’t vegetarian and I know some girls (cousins and other relatives) were made to eat a raw egg straight from the shell, and then the shell would be filled with gingelly oil and they’d be made to drink that. I’m very lucky that my immediate family is somewhat more modern so none of that was forced down my throat, phew!
This seems like a nice brinjal dish.
I make certain dishes with sesame oil… vatha kuzhambu for instance 
Dear Mathy, I don’t know if you received my email or not. I had emailed you regarding my posts not appearing on foodblogdesam. please do reply back. just curious to know what could have been wrong.
my recent post is http://neivedyam.blogspot.com/2007/07/matka-watermelon-kulfis-and-meme.html
and blog name is neivedyam.blogspot.com my email id is in my blog.
thanks and regards
Sharmi
Busy? Din’t see you posting for sometime now.. Just thought of checking up on you
Paththiya thool!!! I got to try it. I think I’ll skip the red chilli though.
I used to wonder why have this paththiya food when one is ill… Though we never had this kinda pathiyam stuff at our home/in our family, amma and me used to discuss about this. And this is what we concluded (based on our bookish knowledge - no experiment was carried out on humans/animals to conclude this) LOL
The masalas and oil in normal diet could add more toxin to the diet or complicate the process of digestion, right the body needs to heal. Say, when somebody is ill and is taking siddha medicines (where medicines is usually taken orally and needs to be absorbed by the body) - the normal diet might also affect in the way the medicine needs to be absorbed by the body… This might be the reason for the concept of pathiyam.
Thanks for blogging about this, Mathy.
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