Ajapsandali ~~ Georgian Eggplant & Vegetable Stew

Today we are starting with 57th edition of Blogging Marathon. I choose a very interesting theme for the first  week- cooking with Eggplants. Eggplant or aubergine is a species of nightshade grown for its edible fruit. This is known as Brinjal in Southeast Asia and South Africa.

Eggplant is used in cuisines of many countries, it is widely used in its native Indian Cuisine. It is often stewed as in French Cuisine or deep fried as in Italian cuisine.Eggplant is also used in Turkey  and middle eastern countries too. Eggplant is also used in  some parts of North America, specially in Georgian Cuisine. Ajapsandali is a vegetable stew made with eggplant and other veggies in large quantity during autumn and preserved for winter. This dish brings warmth and comfortable atmosphere for a cold winter day.

 So this hot and yummy vegetable stew Ajapsandali goes for the day 1, week 1  of BM 57. Here goes the recipe.....

Ingredients:

Eggplant 1 medium size
Onion 1 small
Tomato 1 small
Potato 2  large
Garlic cloves 2
Crushed red pepper 1 spoon
Fresh Cilantro / coriander freshly chopped 1/2 cup
Fresh dill chopped 1/4 cup
Carrot 1 small
Olive oil 2 spoons
Salt to taste
Water 1/4 cup
Lime juice 2 spoons


Preparation:

Peel and cut potato and carrot into small pieces.
Boil water and oil  in a medium to large size saucepan and bring it to boil.
Add cut potato and carrots to boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
Now add chopped onion, eggplant and tomatoes.
Cook for 5 minutes on high flame  and simmer the flame to cook  further for another 5 minutes.
Peel the chop the garlic, clean cilantro and dill leaves  in cold water and chop them  too and add to the cooking veggies.
Add salt and crushed red pepper and cook further till veggies are nice and soft.
The original recipe does not mention about the lime juice but add it if you like to.
Serve hot with Bread.

Check to see what my fellow bloggers are cooking for BM 57.