Baigan Bharta (Grilled Eggplant/Brinjal with Spices)

Baigan Bharta a very well know North Indian roasted eggplants/brinjal. I usually do the roasting in the oven, when I have lot of time on hand and in good mood I'll used grill to do this. I love the smokey flavour it gives after grilling. Grilling takes about 45 minutes and needs constant attention and have to turn every 5 mins, but its worth all the work. Once the grilling it done, curry can be made in under 15 mins. We had this with chapathis for dinner last night.

Ingredients

• Eggplant - 1 Big
• Onion - 1 medium size(chopped)
• Tomato - 1 big(chopped)
• Ginger- 1 inch(grated)

Spices

• Garam Masala powder - 1tbsp
• Cayenne pepper(red chilli powder)- 1 tsb

Oil for tempering and salt to taste. 2 tbsp of fresh lime/lemon juice.



Roasting Eggplant : Heat griddle on high. Rub little oil on eggplant and keep it on grill. Keep turning every 5 mins or so. It takes about 30 to 45 mins to get all the skin on the eggplant to turn black. Have to trun very gently so the skin won't break. Once the inside becomes soft, switch off and transfer to a plate. Peel the skin and mash with fork. Now its ready to be used.

Convenient/easy  method : Poke few hole with a fork all over the eggplant. Cover with foil and roast in 400 F oven for 35- 45 mins. Eggplant will collapse once its done. Let it cool, remove skin and mash the eggplant.

1. On a medium high heat ,put oil in a pan add choppen onions and grated ginger, saute till soft them add tomatoes cook till soft. This takes about 5- 7 mins.
2. Then add spices mix well, now add mashed eggplant. Mix well and keep stiring untill all the flavours comes together.
3. Add salt to taste. Squeeze lime juice before serving.

Enjoy !

I'll be sending this to Pooja for her Vow-Brinjals event .

Cooking and Awards

I have been trying out recipes from my fellow bloggers lately. Here are some of the recipes i have tried so far.

This is Suma's Sweet potato chutney. The day I saw this recipe on her blog, I brought home some sweet potatoes and tried it, it was very delicious and nutritious too. Now I make this very often, reason being apart from healthy its as easy as grate and grind. Now I keep this veggi on hand all the time, goes very well with rice, dosas and idlies. Thanks Suma for this delicious and healthy recipe, I love making and eating it.


Couple months ago I was talking to my cousine who is in NJ, she was telling me that she has a new gujarathi neighbour and she is learning new dishes from her and they made Khandvi and it was delicious. She told me over the phone how they made that using inverted plates and so on. At that time I had no idea was she was telling. Then for RCI - gujurat cusine I saw many recipes of khandvi on blogs and came to know about it.

When I saw this on Nupur's blog (she calls it Suralichi wadi)I thought of making it. But when I saw the same on Sia's blog I was drooling over it. So the next day I reffered Nupur's blog and read the recipe and instruction for more than 10 times and finally made it at first attempt. It was differently delicious I must say. Thanks to Nupur and Sia for their mouthwatering pictures and recipes, which they have explained very beautiful, even first timers like me can make it.



The above dish is of baked chickpea falafel from Siri's Corner. The magic word baked, is why I made this dish. One thing I did wrong with this recipe is that, I kept the mixture for too long(more than 24 hrs)in the fridge, so when baked it was bit dry. But it was very delicous, nice recipe to do for get-togethers, easy thing is will be done under 10 minutes (baking part).Thanks Siri for this healthy falafel recipe, i'll be making this often.


I am not a big fan of mushrooms, I have tasted them only as a topping on my pizzas, which I don't like. When I saw this recipe of Mushrooms I was really impressed by the way the dish looked, very colourful and tasty, its from Suganya's Tasty palettes. If I ever wanted to try any dish with mushrooms, this was the dish. I made this last week for our dinner with chapathis it was delicious and I liked it, sesame paste combines very well with mushrooms.

I was expecting the result to be same as Suganya's but didn't, its in the chilli powder I will try this using kashmiri chilli powder next time. Thanks Suganya for the recipe, next on my list is your Sweet potato fries.

Now coming to awards, I am very excited to recive this award from fellow blogger Vanamala of Nalapak. Thanks Mala.

I like to pass this awards to Latha, Lakshmi and Asha.