Wash the eggplants, pat them dry and slit into 4 keeping the stem intact.
Take a wok, dry roast peanuts, coconut, sesame seeds separately and allow it to cool. Once cooled down,grind to make a smooth paste with these roasted ingredients using ½ cup water.
In the same wok, smear little oil.
After the oil heats up,add mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds crackle, add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves and mix them well.
Add sliced onions. Saute till the onions get brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for 30 seconds
Add turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, salt, and green chillies. Mix everything well.
Add the peanut-coconut-seasme paste prepared in step 2. Cover and let it cook for 25-30 minutes on medium flame until the oil starts to separate out on the edges.
In the meanwhile, add oil to another pan and fry the slit baby eggplants. Keep it aside on a paper towel to soak extra oil.
After 30 mins, check on the gravy. It should have separated oil by now giving a nice and bright colour.
Add chopped mint and coriander leaves.
Add yoghurt and mix well. Bring it to a boil. Now, cover it and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
After adding yoghurt, the curry starts to look even more creamy and richer in texture
Now is the time to add our fried eggplants to the gravy. Gently mix them in the gravy. Cook for another 3-4 minutes for the baby eggplants to absorb some flavors from the gravy.
Garnish with coriander or mint leaves.
Serve hot with your favorite Biryani or Naan..
