BRINJAL ACHAR
1 kg brinjal
4 dry red chillis
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
250 ml vinegar
6 cloves garlic
3 green chillis
30 mm fresh root ginger
120 ml plus 4 tablespoons salad oil
2 sprigs curry or bay leaves
½ teaspoon tumeric powder
115 g sugar

Slice brinjals and sprinkle with salt keep aside. In a mortar pound together red chillis, cummin and mustard seeds. Mix with a little vinegar to make a smooth paste. Peel and half garlic cloves, slit green chillis lengthwise and slice ginger finely. Heat a little of the oil in a pan and fry garlic, chillis and ginger 3 min. Remove from oil and keep aside. Drain liquid from brinjals and fry til brown and dry. Drain and remove from pan, in a kleen sausepan fry curry leaves and spice paste in remaining oil, for 3 min. Add vinnegar and when nearly boiling add brinjals, garlic, chillis, ginger and tumeric, cook for 2 minutes add sugar and salt to taste and cook for 10 min. Cool and preserve in air tight bottles

Recipe: Naila Karachi
Foto: Paul Snyman

BREAKFAST BUNS
They can be prepared before you start to cook the rest of the breakfast. (makes 12 buns)
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons vegetable fat
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups cake flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt,
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup milk
3/8 cup melted butter
1 teaspoons powdered cinnamon

Preheat the oven on 180 ºC.
Grease 12 cake patty tins with 1 tablespoons of butter and set aside.
In a medium-size mixing bowl, beat together the remaining butter, the vegetable fat, half the sugar and the egg with a wooden spoon or rotary beater until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into another bowl.
Beat the flour mixture and the milk into the egg-and-fat mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the greased patty tins, filling them two-thirds full.
Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25 minutes,or until the buns are a light brown.
Remove the tins from the oven and, with a palette knife, ease the buns out of the tins on to a wire rack. Brush the buns with the melted butter and sprinkle them with the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
Serve hot😊
Photo: Angeline Van Dieman