Gutti Vankaya Curry

Guti Vankaya Curry is a stuffed eggplant dish from the Andhra cuisine. Here the stuffing is made from a mix of desiccated coconut, peanuts and spices, which is ground finely. Small tender brinjals are stuffed with this ground masala and then cooked. A bit of tamarind pulp is added to the gravy for a faint sour taste. This recipe is vegan as well as gluten free.

The recipe of gutti vankaya kura was shared by a reader from Andhra, many years ago in my initial days of blogging. From then onwards I have made this delicious stuffed eggplant curry recipe with a few changes to the original recipe. There are quite a numbers of variations while preparing gutti vankaya kura.

This recipe has some gravy and is not dry. Also the brinjals are cooked in the pressure cooker, thereby saving time. Though you can also cook them in a pan.

The preparation of masala and stuffing the brinjals, takes some time. Once you are done with the preparation and stuffing, then the remaining process is easy.

The stuffing of this Gutti Vankaya is made from a mix of peanuts, desiccated coconut and spices like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds (methi dana), dried red chilies and turmeric powder. A bit of the prepared tamarind pulp is added in this for the fair sour taste.

This ground masala paste is then stuffed in small tender brinjals or aubergines and cooked in the flavorful gravy of whole spices, split black gram (urad dal), chopped onions, curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste and some of the masala paste itself.

I have made the tamarind pulp separately. But you can just add the tamarind to the coconut+spices while grinding. To balance the sourness, you can also add some jaggery in the gravy.

Gutti vankaya curry tastes best with jowar roti or bajra roti or chapatis. The curry also tastes good with steamed rice.

How to make Gutti Vankaya Kura

1. First soak ½ tablespoon tamarind in ¼ cup warm or hot water for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Then squeeze and extract the soaked tamarind into the water. Keep the tamarind pulp aside.

3. Heat a small frying pan. Add ¼ cup peanuts and roast them on a low to medium flame, with frequent stirrings.

4. The peanuts have to be roasted well and should not have even a slight rawness in them. Remove the peanuts and keep aside.

5. To the same pan, add 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds and ¼ teaspoon methi seeds. Skip methi seeds if you do not have them.

6. Roast these seeds too till they become fragrant. Take care not to over roast or burn them. Remove and keep aside.

7. In the same pan, now add 2 tablespoon of desiccated coconut. You can also use fresh coconut instead of desiccated coconut.

8. Stir continuously and roast the coconut till light golden. Remove and keep aside.

9. Add 3 to 4 dry red chilies.

10. Roast the chilies till the red color changes a shade. You should also get the aroma while roasting them. Once they become aromatic and the color changes, remove and keep aside. Once cooled, break the red chilies in small pieces and remove the seeds.

11. Now let the spices cool and then take all of them in a grinder jar.

12. Add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.

13. Now add the tamarind pulp. Also add 3 to 4 tablespoon water.

14. Grind everything to a smooth thick masala. The masala paste should be thick or else stuffing the brinjals becomes difficult.

Stuffing brinjals

15. First rinse 12 to 14 small brinjals in fresh water. Then slit each brinjal from the base, keeping the stalks. 

To make the brinjals stand while cooking, just thinly slice a small part from the base. Do use small tender brinjals as they cook faster and taste good.

16. Soak the brinjals in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes. Then drain all the water and keep the brinjal aside.

17. Later stuff each brinjal very well with the masala paste. Keep aside. Some masala paste will remain. So keep this aside too.

Making gutti vankaya kura

18. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a 3 litre stovetop pressure cooker. Add 1 teaspoon mustard seeds and allow them to crackle.

19. Then add ½ teaspoon urad dal.

20. Next add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds.

21. Saute till the urad dal turns a maroonish red.

22. Then add ½ cup of finely chopped onion.

23. Next add 1 sprig curry leaves.

24. Saute till the onions turn translucent stirring often.

25. Now add ½ tablespoon ginger-garlic paste.

26. Add the remaining masala paste along with ⅔ cup water.

27. Stir and mix very well.

28. Now place the stuffed eggplant gently in the pressure cooker.

29. Sprinkle salt evenly and all over.

30. Cover and pressure cook gutti vankaya curry for 5 to 6 minutes on a high to medium heat. When the pressure settles down, then only open the lid.

Check the doneness by sliding a knife through the brinjal. If the knife slids easily, then the brinjals are cooked.

If they are not cooked, then add 2 to 3 tablespoons oof water and pressure cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. If you have used medium sized brinjals, then you will need to pressure cook for some more minutes.

31. Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve gutti vankaya kura hot or warm with chapatis or steamed rice. This curry also goes very well with jowar roti or bajra roti.

More Baingan recipes

• Kathirikai sambar
• Brinjal masala
• Bagara baingan
• Kathirikai kulambu

Gutti Vankaya recipe from the archives was originally published on April 2016.