I tried another fantastic recipe, Fiery Eggplant, from Anupy Singla’s The Indian Slow Cooker cookbook (Thank you again Meghna and Samit!). Slow cooking is great because you can throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and it is ready for dinner when you get home. The fennel and nigella seeds give this dish a very unique flavor. I took out a few steps (I have no patience soaking eggplant or for peeling tomatoes :-)) and added a step of my own.

I have noticed that sometimes when I have cooked in a slow cooker, the food can come out a tiny bit metallic tasting, so I looked up if other people found the same thing. One suggestion was to saute onions first because raw onions can give that taste. There weren’t onions in this recipe, but I thought garlic might do the same thing, so I sauteed them slightly first. The dish was great and no metallic taste! This dish does use a lot of oil and I didn’t reduce the oil this time, but I might try using a little less in the future.

8 small eggplants sliced
2 tomatoes chopped
1 tomato blended in a food processor
1 small piece ginger minced (or throw the ginger in with the tomato in the food processor)
4 green chilis chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tablespoon fennel
1 teaspoon nigella seeds
5 garlic cloves sliced into thick slices

1. Throw the eggplants, tomatoes, blended tomatoes, ginger, green chilis, turmeric, coriander, chili powder and salt in the crock pot.
2. Heat the oil in a small skillet and add the fennel, nigella and garlic and cook until the garlic is a little soft and the seeds crackle.
3. Throw this mixture into the crockpot.
4. Stir everything and cook on high for 5 and 1/2 hours.
5. Serve with onions, rice, and yogurt.