BAINGAN BHARTA

Roasted, mashed, flavored Eggplant!! This is for all the non-Hindi speaking dwellers of the blogworld.

This one is a keeper. My husband hated eggplant, that's probably because his mom never showed him the right way to eat it, n I loved eggplant (especially this version). Initially, I never cooked this dish, coz of the reluctance to prepare one dish for him & another for myself, n that too in a family of just he & me. After much patience & sacrifice, I one day decided to just go ahead & told myself that I dont give a hoot to what he thinks about eggplant, like it or not, I am going to make it.....(Honestly, I actually had a leftover dish of yesterday's to fall back upon, just in case...........he throws up a fit).

I made the dish for lunch & when I asked him if he would like to taste it, he made a "yucky" face & therefore I decided not to let him go through the usual wife grumblings, & served him the leftover dish while I myself relished the bharta.

For the evening at tea, I made myself a crunchy toast & spread a spoonful of bharta (bharta actually means anything in mashed form) & was sitting & muching away, relishing every bite of it. All this while I was unaware that two eyes were watching me with a certain amount of "greedy piggy" looks, n then I heard a voice saying "mujhe bhi ek bite chahiye" (I too want a bite of it). Without a word & some astonishment, I handed over whatever was left in my hand, only to find him taking not just a bite of the toast, but the whole thing was satisfactorily devoured, & after a moment, I heard the same voice asking me "mujhe aur chahiye" (I want more).

I cant tell you how satisfied I was with my accomplishment. I made him eat & like, something which he probably hadnt touched all throughout.....& my final reward was, one day, very soon, when he asked me to guess something that he wants to eat......something which had peas in it, I guessed all the dishes except this one, coz I never thought he would ask me for this!!!

Euphoria .......!!

Now before you feel like kicking me on my back, I'll come to the recipe -

Ing -
2 medium sized - round egg plants / baingan (you have to choose the light weight ones - the
heavier ones are loaded with seeds)
1/2 cup - boiled green peas
3/4 big onions - chopped, but not very fine, n neither very chunky
4 medium tomatoes - pureed
1 tbsp - grated ginger
1 tsp - grated garlic
1 tsp - dried fenugreen leaves / kasuri methi (optional)
1/2 tsp - cumin seeds / jeera
1 tsp - red chilli powder, preferably use one like deghi mirch to give a nice red colour, n add
more if you prefer it hot
1 tbsp - garam masala powder
1 tsp - amchur / dried mango powder (if you dont have it, use lime juice about a tsp full)
a good amount of corriander leaves to garnish

Method -

On the gas, roast the eggplant. You have to turn them around frequently to have the flesh cooked evenly. The skin should be charred & when you poke the flesh with a fork, it should go in easily.

Take them off the gas & immediately put them into a air tight dish. After this, the peel will come off easily.
Cut off the stalk of the eggplant & mash the flesh well. I dont throw away the stalks but add them in, to chew upon them.!!! Nice thought ??
Keep this separately.

To save upon time, I make the masala on one side & roast the eggplants on the other one.

Now for the masala -
In a pan, add some oil. Add the cumin seeds, wait for them to sputter & add the onions
Add the ginger & the garlic at this stage.
When the onions turn a good pink in colour add the tomato puree. Cook till the masala leaves the sides of the pan & the oil starts leaving it.
Now first add the red chilli mix well.
Add the garam masala, salt, amchur & the dried fenugreek leaves








let the masalas fry for half a minute.
To this add the mashed pulp of eggplant. Using a masher blend the pulp into the masala very well. It should resemble a fine smooth paste.
Add the boiled peas. Mix well
Garnish with green chillies & corriander
Serve hot with parathas, rotis or plain rice, or as I mentioned earlier, use it as a spread for a toast!!








Another point - while making the masala, if you add half a capsicum, it gives an extra flavor.

Pls dont go by the photograph, it has been taken at night & that too with the mobile camera.