Though the sadhya style elaborate preparations are more popular among the Kerala recipes, the “nadan” day to day recipes are slowly gaining limelight. Since these are recipes that are made everyday without much of a thought, it rarely comes up in discussion. One such is vazhuthananga mezhukuperati or eggplant stirfry.
What is a mezhukuperatti?
Mezhukku” as in fats and oils and “peratti “as in coated is the literal translation of mezhukuperatti. It is a slow pan-roasted vegetable with a touch of oil and minimal spices. The recipe is often made with vegetables that do not need long cooking time like eggplants (brinjal), okra (ladies finger), beans, snake gourd etc
Mezhukkuperatti, upperi or thoran thoran
Both mezhukkuperatti and thoran are the warm salad styles from Kerala cuisine. The key difference between the mezhukkuperatti vs thoran is the use of coconut. Most mezhukkuperatti is just a basic stirfry without any ground masala or grated coconut added to it and no tempered spices too. Thoran on the other hand starts off with tempered spices and finished off with soft grated coconut added freshly and tossed in. Use of vegetable wise both is pretty much the same. Upperi is just another name given to thoran in central Kerala.
Eggplant variety for mezhukkupetatti
Personally, I love the Lebanese eggplants or the longer variety of eggplants in mezhukkuperatti. However, the large aubergines also taste wonderful in this recipe. The only drawback of these is that they tend to shrink so much in volume when they are pan-roasted. Probably this is why the skinnier versions are preffered.
Other ingredients for this vazhuthananga mezhukkuperatti
This eggplant stirfry is one of the most basic recipes. Hence it relies on good quality ingredients to make it the best.
Oil -since this is a nadan recipe, I will prefer to use coconut oil. However, you can choose the oil that you like to make this as it is only a very small amount.
Salt- Like my mum would say, go for rock salt or Himalayan salt. It has a tasty mineral content in them rather than the table salt.
Chilli – Slit green chillies can be added to the recipe. This depended on your spice tolerance. I have totally avoided it, just because I was pairing it with Kulith saar and that was spicy enough for us.
Curry leaves – The classic Kerala flavours come from the curry leaves that get roasted in coconut oil.
These are all the ingredients you need to make this eggplant fry. Check the details of the recipe in the recipe card below. Pin it for further use from here. Rate us on the star rating if you happen to make this recipe.
Vazhuthananga mezhukkuperatti
Equipment
- 1 Thick bottomed pan.
- Cutting board
- Knife
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1-2 medium green chilli
- 6-7 curry leaves
- salt to taste
- 6-8 long eggplant long variety, green or purple
Instructions
- Wash and remove the stalk and cap of the eggplants.
- Slice and cut them in long strips of 2 inches.
- Into a thick bottomed pan, add the oil and curryleaves. S.et on medium heat
- As the curry leaves sizzles, add the green chillies and the sliced eggplants.
- Stir fry this for a couple of minutes.
- Sprinkle the salt and lower the heat.
- Stir occasionally and allow the eggplants to roast slowly for about 15 minutes.
- Once the eggplants are soft to cut with a fork, the stirfry is ready.
- Serve warm.
Let’s make this a meal
Soft cooked matta rice with sambhar or kachiya more is the Kerala way to have this vazhuthananga mezhukkuperatti. If you are using this to make an on the go meal, you can never go wrong with this in a wrap with tasty lemon rice or mango rice filling. If on rainy days I love the mezhukkuperatti with payarukanji and wild lemon pickle. Add this to your south Indian thali meal to have a perfect full platter.
Making it ahead
The mezhukkuperatti stays well in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. However, keeping it longer really doesn’t taste that great. As for freezing, I personally don’t prefer it as eggplant tends to get spongy and lose its flavour. The recipe so doesn’t work with frozen eggplants. So not the best eggplant stirfry for a long prep.
Looking for more eggplant based recipes
The easiest way you can see more recipes out of the ingredients we have on this blog is to type in the ingredient in the search bar. It will bring up all the results we have for this. Try it, as we have a few recipes with various eggplants lined up for you.
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This Vazhuthananga mezhukkuperatti can easily pass off as a warm salad to be enjoyed on its own or served with hot rotis as a sabji. Some of the most simplest dishes are the most tastiest. Have put eggplant on my shopping list so that I can try out this dish.
Simple Sabjis like these with some Rasam saadham are pure bliss. I think this could be the equivalent of the kannada palya Seema ?
I love eggplant. This simple and delicious stir fry sounds so Delish. I won to try this recipe whenever I buy eggplants next time.
Oh I love mezhukkuperrati and keep making it often but as you said these simple dishes never make it to the blog . Learnt the name for brinjal in Malayalam,”Vazhuthananga “. Love the stir frying of veggies in coconut oil