Heat a few drops of sesame oil in a small pan and lightly roast all the ingredients for the gotsu powder until the Bengal gram is turning golden, the rice is opaque, and the chillies are darkening and the coriander and coconut very fragrant. Take care to keep mixing or else the ingredients will burn.

Remove from heat, and transfer to the jar of a coffee or spice grinder right away—but do allow to cool slightly before pulsing to a fine powder. Set aside.

Cut the eggplant into slivers and set aside in a bowl, mixed with a little turmeric powder.

Heat the oil in a wide kadhai and fry the eggplant on medium-high heat until the pieces are very soft. Keep the pan covered and lower the heat if you must, but allow the eggplant to fry in oil slowly. Don’t skimp on the oil—eggplant loves it, and the gotsu needs it as a preservative.

Once the eggplant is soft, transfer to a bowl to cool and then mash well (with hands is fine, or a fork).

Meanwhile, cook the jackfruit in the same kadhai by immersing in water, adding a generous pinch of turmeric, bringing to a boil and keeping covered until the jackfruit is fork-tender. Unripe jackfruit can be thirsty and can “drink” all the water you give it.

Drain well (if there’s water left at all!), cool, and mash well as with the eggplant, or use a knife and chop into small bits.

In the same wide kadhai used to cook the eggplant and jackfruit, add the oil for tempering. When it’s very hot, add the mustard seeds and hing—once the seeds splutter, add the cooked-mashed eggplant and jackfruit.

Mix well and fry for a minute. Then add the tamarind water, and jaggery and salt to taste. Wash out the tamarind with a little more water if need be and add that, too.

Bring the gotsu to a slow boil, and continue to cook and stir for a few minutes.

Now add the spice powder, mix well, and continue to stir. Also add the 1 teaspoon turmeric and 1 teaspoon red chilli powder [if using] now. The gotsu will thicken quickly at this stage, so keep your eye on it and keep scraping down the sides of the pan.

You can mash the eggplant and jackfruit further while cooking, or you can simply mix to keep a slightly rough texture—it’s up to you.

Once the gotsu seems to become homogenous (you can’t tell the difference between the eggplant and the jackfruit any more), add the ½ cup sesame oil. Continue stirring and cooking on medium-low heat.

The gotsu is done when the oil starts to emerge from the sides of the pan so it looks like the liquid is frying rather than boiling.

The fragrance of the coriander seeds should be prominent, the gotsu itself should be a mix of all 6 tastes, but predominantly sour-spice-sweet-salt (roughly in that order), and should look visibly reddish. Even testing by smell is tantamount to tasting/consuming—for a naivedyam that’s not done, but really when you have this sense of the gojju you know you’re done.

The gotsu will keep well, refrigerated, for a few weeks.

Cook the jeeraga samba rice in at least 4-5 cups of water until the grains are al-dente (or hold shape but mash easily between fingers if you don’t want to taste what is to be offered).

Drain the cooked rice and spread out onto a wide plate to dry a little.

Dry roast the jeera and pepper and powder coarsely. Some jeera should remain whole and the peppercorns must not become a fine powder.

In a kadhai, heat the ghee and add the curry leaves. Once these are fried, pile the cooked rice on top. Turn off the flame.

Now gently mix in the cumin-pepper powder and add a little salt to taste.

Serve hot, with the eggplant gotsu on the side.