Until after I moved out of my parents home to Hyderabad, I didn’t know about any other varieties of brinjals except these greenish white beauties. They are called Poluru Vankaayalu in Telugu. Vankaaya means Brinjal and Poluru is the name of the village, (near my home town Nandyala) in Andhra where they are grown exclusively. So the name Poluru Vankaayalu. Thanks to Thai and Vietnamese, I am able to purchase them here also in US.
When cut open, brinjal filled with black seeds means it’s very ripe and not good for cooking, tastes bitter. The ones filled with white seeds, only they are used for curries and kurmas. They have mildly sweet and buttery taste when cooked and the greenish white skin outside tastes so delicious. Because they mature very rapidly, I always buy a lot. I have to throw away at least half of them because of black seeds. Curry cooked with the remaining white ones, is a rare treat that makes me remember my hometown tastes.
Recipes with Green Eggplant:
Stuffed Green Brinjal Curry
Brinjal-Potato Curry
Weekend herb blogging – It’ s Sage at Kalyn’s Kitchen
The green ones taste great. But even the asian stores here have them in such small quantities that I avoid them. In India, the green eggplants I have seen are the long variety. Do you have a specific recipe for them?
Comment by mika — October 23, 2005 @ 1:46 pm
I love green eggplant, especially in Thai Green Curry. I’ll have to try the green eggplant I just purchased in an Indian application, thanks!
Comment by Jenn — October 23, 2005 @ 3:15 pm
ahaa mee blog debbaki naa notlo neellu oori vantakaala badulu mee photo’s ne tinesetattu unnaanu….very good work…keep it up…
Vamsi
Comment by Vamsi — October 23, 2005 @ 10:08 pm
I had been to a friends house for lunch , they made some chuney with smtg cald beerakaya.whats beerakaya in english indira? do u have any recipes.
Indira says…
Hi Priya, they are called ridgegourd in English (Peechingai in Tamil?). I posted one recipe with it, check out Indian vegetables section in Categories.
Yum.. I like beera kaya chutney.
Comment by priya,ar — December 13, 2005 @ 10:34 am
oopsi iam sorry, i dint see the beerakaya in Indian vegetables section. But they said it looks like cucumber ( fatter version with yellow lines) she dint know to explain in English and my telugu is pretty bad , so cudnt follow what she said much.do we get this in US stores ?
Indira says…
No problem, Priya.:)
I recently organised the categories section according to the ingredients. If you hold mouse on a name of ingredient in the category section, you can find what’s it called in different Indian languages. Hope this helps.
How do you like my organisation? Do you find it useful and helful, Priya?
Comment by priya,ar — December 13, 2005 @ 3:29 pm
Priya, Ridge gourd is called as Peerkangai’ in Tamil and Peechinga’ in Malayalam …
Thanks
Indira says…
Kingini.. thanks for helping out.
Comment by kingini — December 13, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
oh so peerkangai is cald beerakaya in telugu. Thanx kingini
Comment by priya,ar — December 13, 2005 @ 6:12 pm
Hey, i my home town is Poluru which is famous for Vankayalu
Comment by Srinivas — June 1, 2006 @ 11:04 am
Hi Indira,
I was wondering if you could use the ripe brinjal for pickle,the ones with the black seeds or is it a total write off and has to be trashed?
Comment by Sushma — January 24, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
Indira, I am not fond of brinjals but when I got really fresh and tender green brinjals I search on the net to find your recipe. Tried it and it came out real nice. The best part was that my son who hates and never eats brinjals thought it was Dondakaya. I revealed that it was brinjal after he finished eating 🙂
Comment by Aruna — February 1, 2011 @ 7:50 am
[…] Le melanzane verdi sono usate nella cucina Thai, Vietnamita e asiatica in generale. Qui ho trovato alcuni dettagli e l’idea di cucinarle con del curry. Una volta tagliate le melanzane verdi, se hanno semi neri, sono amare e non si possono mangiare, ma se sono bianche allora saranno perfette. Ho approfittato per realizzare io stessa la polvere di curry, dato che avevo della bellissima curcuma intera, regalo di Eva. […]
Pingback by Baby melanzane verdi al curry e coriandolo · Kitty's Kitchen — May 16, 2012 @ 2:32 am
Poluru is my village and I have grown up here .
Comment by Satish Reddy — October 1, 2013 @ 3:56 am
Poluru vankayalu can be called if you buy them in poluru because ,the land itself gives the distinct taste to brinjals where it is grown.
Comment by Satish Reddy — October 1, 2013 @ 4:01 am