Bhagara Baingan ~ curried brinjals

Thanks to 'VahChef' for inspiring me to cook Bharaga Baingan. I liked his recipe  'Bhagara Baingan'.

What you need :

Baby Brinjals - 250g
Oil - for deep frying and for seasoning

Roast and make coarse paste :
Peanuts - 4tbsp
Sesame Seeds - 3tbsp
Coconut Powder - 3tbsp

For rest of the procedure:
Whole spices - 2 bay leaves, 2" stick cinnamon, 4 cloves, a small piece of mace (javitri)
Onion - 3 medium sized onions chopped into small squares
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1tsp (I reduced it from a tbsp to tsp, you can add more if you like)
Cumin powder - 3/4 tbsp
Coriander powder- 1tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1tbsp
Mustard, Jeera and Methi seeds for seasoning

Method:
1. The procedure involves 3 important steps : 1. Roasting and blending 2. Deepfrying brinjals 3. Cooking the sauce with brinjals

1. Roast and Blend
a. Roast peanuts and sesame seeds in a tsp of oil. Peanuts must be crisp when you finish frying. Allow them to cool. Blend this with coconut powder to make coarse paste.
b.Keep it aside

2. Deepfrying Brinjals
I would reccommend this to do parallelly with step 3 or to start when 3/4 th of step 3 has completed.
Cut brinjals from back into 4 parts, retaining the stem. Do not cut the entire brinjal. 70% of the brinjals have to be fried in oil and another 30% of brinjal has to be cooked in sauce.

 

 

3. Heat 5tbsp of oil in a non stick pan. Add whole spices, followed by mustard, jeera, methi seeds. Add in onions, fry for a minute and add ginger garlic paste. Fry untill the raw smell fades. Add powdered spices - cumin, coriander and redchilli.

4. Add 2 tbsp of water and mix well. When the water starts bubbling add peanut sesame paste. Keep stirring. Add 50ml water, salt and bring to boil. Cook untill oil separates. Add fried brinjals, little more water to adjust the thickness of the gravy and cook brinjals in the sauce till brinjals are little soft. Switch off the stove and set it aside. Let it cool down. Serve it warm with rice or chapati.

Enjoiii...

Lakshmi