South Indian spinach and eggplant

I can't pretend that I'm making real South Indian food here. Total haole (Hawai'ian for foreigner/white person). What I can say is that I adapted a common spice combination in South Indian dishes to some local ingredients I found at the farmer's market:

First, a note about South Indian flavors. The North Indian recipes I've posted thus far are flavored with spices like garam masala (itself a mix of warm flavors like cloves, cinnamon, and peppercorns among many other ingredients), ground coriander, and tomatoes. Onions, garlic, and ginger are common to recipes in both North and South. What distinguishes South Indian flavors is an emphasis on earthy and herbal aromatics: curry leaves (which taste sharp and peppery, a mix of mild green chili with arugula with bay leaf), mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and/or leaves, turmeric, shredded coconut, tangy yogurt. Less warm and creamy, more peppery and bright and a little bitter. (In a good way.)

So with my [admittedly limited haole] knowledge of South Indian cooking, I made this:

Eggplant and Spinach curry
with coconut milk and South Indian spices
delicious on rice or piled on top of bread
and if you can't find Indian bread, use thick style tortillas, it's alllllmost a chapati and still tastes great

Ingredients

Flavorful oil
oil of your choice (I used avocado oil; coconut oil is also great)
small spoonful of cumin seeds
half spoonful of fenugreek
half spoonful of black mustard seeds
1-2 dried red chiles, broken into pieces
12 or so fresh curry leaves*

*I find these at the farmer's market, lucky me. If you can't find them fresh, you might procure some frozen or dried in an Indian grocery.

Also allegedly they are good for your heart and keep your hair from going gray, so I predict that Whole Foods with catch on and market curry leaves as a new superfood. Called it.

Further aromatics
1 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, diced
3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced

Spices
half spoonful ground turmeric (or use fresh turmeric root if you wish!)
half spoonful ground coriander
half spoonful ground red chili/cayenne, to taste based on desired spice level

Veggies
eggplant(s), variety of your choice, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lb spinach

Extras
fresh cilantro
yogurt
rice
chutneys and pickles and things

A pile o' spices.

Method
Before you start, I recommend prepping some ingredients, since things will go in the oil in quick succession. Cut up the onion, ginger, and garlic and have it ready on the side.

Aromatics waiting their turn.

Start by popping cumin seeds, fenugreek, and dried chili in oil. The start of every good thing.

After the cumin is sizzling nicely, about a minute, add the mustard seeds. These will pop right out of the pan, so maybe you'll prefer to make this dish in an enclosed pot. Both work fine.

As the mustard seeds are popping, add the curry leaves and onions. Cook until onions are golden—and DON'T use as much curry leaf as you see pictured here. The package at the farmer's market comes with an insane quantity and I got overambitious. The dish would have been improved with a lighter hand.

It's a strong flavor. I happen to love it, so this is a good amount of curry leaf for me, but most people would find this absurd.

Add the eggplants, ginger, and garlic, and a small dash of water. Cover the pan to catch the steam and let eggplants soften, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Right after they went in. They take a while to soften up. You can cook them in advance—sauté, instant pot, microwave, whatever—if you want to speed up the prep time.

When eggplants are getting there but not quite done, add the other spices and continue to cook eggplants, adding water and covering the lid until they're pretty soft.

Looking good.

Then add the spinach; it doesn't take long to cook, not more than 5 minutes. Salt the dish generously and add half a can of coconut milk right at the end. Continue salting to taste until it's just right.

Spinach mostly done.

And voilà.

Enjoy with rice, yogurt, and the pleasant company of a bizarre cactus berry that appeared recently on my patio plant.