Black eyed beans and eggplant in spicy gravy

This is an age old dish which every family might have down their memory line.When we are "pardesh" and want our taste buds to be bathed "desi", this dish is a great idea to indulge in. You never would have realized that these beans and our pal the eggplant, team so well. Here one associates eggplant with parmigiano reggiano. But i very much care more for our fabulous Indian fare made with this.The freshly ground ingredients mixed in give you that insatiable want for more.Who cares, you can lick away half the sauce tasting it! A great accompaniment for rice, rotis, idlis and dosa.

Ingredients

1 cup black eyed beans(cooked)
1 lemon sized tamarind(juiced)
1 cup cubed eggplant
1/2 tomato chopped
6 cloves garlic peeled and halved
2 teaspoons sambar powder
2 tablespoons coconut
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon urad dhal
1/2 teaspoon hing
a few curry leaves
2 teaspoons oil
salt to taste

Method

Grind the coconut,tomato, fennel seeds with the sambar powder, adding water as required to a coarse paste and keep aside. In a kadai heat the oil and splatter the mustard, urad, hing and curry leaves. Add the chopped onions, eggplant and garlic and saute it till it turns glossy and pour in the tamarind juice and allow it to cook for a while, till the raw smell goes and then add the beans and then add the gound paste and bring it to a boil, add salt and switch off the stove.Enjoy!