recipes
stuffed veggies, two ways
In this third instalment we bring you staple weekend side dishes from home, stuffed vegetables two ways: long skinny green peppers stuffed with spicy prawn paste and fat little baby eggplants stuffed with a spiced mixture of coconut and peanuts.
Amma used to make these at home all the time that we always thought these were quintessentially Tamil / Sri Lankan. But when we were older and ventured out from amma’s kitchen to the outside world, we found out that these flavours can be found across the ocean in other Asian cuisines. The prawn filling is a beloved flavour in Southeast Asia, belachan. The eggplant dish is in fact Gujarati. Who knew!
iral cutlet; stuffed peppers with prawns
amma-inspired
Amma makes these with snake gourd back home, but it’s so hard to find it in London so we swapped it for these long green peppers. The prawn filling can be cooked on its own as mini prawn cutlets/cakes! We’ve had these almost every week at home and it wasn’t until I started eating out as an adult that I realised this prawn filling is the same as the famous belachan in parts of Southeast Asia.
ravaiya; stuffed aubergine
gujarati-inspired
Amma used to make this at home and because it had coconut, we always assumed it was a Sri Lankan thing, duh. We realised it’s actually an iconic Gujarati dish when we made it for a Gujarati friend. Here’s a Tamil twist!
iral cutlet
the stuff
the vegetable:
5 pointed green peppers
the stuffing:
500g prawns, deshelled and deveined
3-4 dried red chillies
1 onion
8 garlic cloves
1 egg
grated coconut, as you like
salt, to taste
the method
- Deshell and devein prawns.1
- In a stockpot, dump the prawns and dried red chillies in cold water. Add salt and let it boil until pink.
- Meanwhile, dice the onions and garlic. You can also prep the peppers by cutting a slit down the middle and arranging them onto a baking tray.
- Once the prawns are pink, drain the water.
- Drop them prawns, dried chillies, onions, garlic, coconut and egg into a food processor or blender and hit that button until it turns into a smooth paste.2
- Pre-heat the oven at 200°C.3
- Stuff each pepper with a generous amount of filling and drizzle some olive oil over them.4
- Bake it for about 20 minutes, until the top coat turns a little brown.
- Once it cools down, it’s time to take a bite, or have it with some rice!
1 You can skip this step by buying deshelled raw prawns from the supermarket but we are our amma’s children so we needed to do this from scratch.
2 Have a taste and adjust salt or spice as needed. If it’s too spicy, add more coconut.
3 Do this when you start the stuffing to save electricity and the environment.
4 If you have leftover filling, you can pat them into a flat cake and cook them in a pan with a little bit of oil.
ravaiya
the stuff
the vegetable:
4-5 baby aubergines
the stuffing:
1 cup peanuts
1 cup shredded coconut
coriander seeds
cumin seeds
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 inch ginger, minced
1-2 dried chillies
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp oil
the method
- Deshell the peanuts.1
- On a medium flame, toast the peanuts, coconut, coriander and cumin seeds until the coconut turns into a beautiful, earthy brown.
- In a food processor, add the toasted mixture. Dump everything else in – garlic, ginger, dried chillies, tomatoes, salt, sugar, and oil.
- Blend into a smooth paste.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.2
- Now cut these baby aubergines into a little flower. Slit the aubergines crosswise from the bottom, almost all the way through, leaving the stalk area uncut.3
- Stuff each aubergine generously and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.4
- Drizzle olive oil over the aubergines. Bake them for about 30-40 minutes until the aubergines are fully cooked.
- Take them out, have it on their own or couple it with a chapati, roti or any flatbread. MMMMM!
1 Again, you can just get roasted peanuts off the shelf but you know us, amma always says everything from scratch.
2 Do this when you start the stuffing to save electricity and the environment.
3 Check out our Instagram / TikTok for the video tutorial if you’re still not sure.
4 Any leftover stuffing can be sprinkled on the tray (them crispy bits are so good to eat after baking).