Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Brinjal Bharta (Eggplant Curry)


Brinjal Bharta
'Eggplant/Aubergine' or 'Brinjal' as it's popularly called in India, is on my list of 'not-so favorite' veggies . It's not that the list is very long-there are just two vegetables (brinjal and potatoes) and again it's not that I will not touch them. I prefer to eat them only in certain dishes:potatoes as chips or in Masala Dosa and brinjal as a bharta, pakora or stuffed.
For the Brinjal bharta, the brinjal is usually first roasted whole over a fire (since we have an electric cooktop here, I had to bake it) . Once roasted,the brinjal pulp is then cooked with chopped onions,tomatoes and garnished with chopped cilantro. The Brinjal bharta goes well with 'phulkas/roti' or with steamed rice and dal.Here are the ingredients for Brinjal Bharta:
Ingredients:
  • Eggplant/brinjal: 1 big
  • Onion: 1 medium, finely chopped
  • Tomatoes: 1-2 ,diced
  • Green chillies: 1-2,slit lengthwise
  • Ginger: 1 tsp, finely chopped
  • Garlic: 4-5, finely chopped
  • Garam masala: 1tsp
  • Cilantro/coriander leaves: 5 tbsp, finely chopped
  • Salt: to taste
  • Oil: 1tsp
Method:
  1. Spread a little oil over the skin of the eggplant/brinjal and roast over an open flame till it gets cooked(or you could bake it in the oven for 20-30mins).
  2. After it cools a bit, remove the skin (the oil applied on the skin makes it easy) and coarsely chop the eggplant pulp. Keep aside.
  3. Heat the oil in a pan,then add the chopped ginger and garlic. Let it fry for about a minute,then add the chopped onions and salt.
  4. Saute till the onions become translucent, then add the slit green chillies, diced tomatoes and garam masala powder. Stir for about 5-6 minutes till the tomatoes are cooked.
  5. Add the pulp of the brinjal and cook for another 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
  6. Garnish the brinjal bharta with chopped cilantro and serve hot with phulkas.



Brinjal Bharta
Question: What is your favorite dish with 'eggplant/aubergine'?

12 comments:

chow and chatter said...

awesome recipe I need to try I think the roasting part will make it wonderful

Unknown said...

I think your least favoutite vegetables might be my very favourite ones! And I LOVE this!

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

my favorite vegetable...
i love eggplant curry!

Indian Khana said...

I love baigan bharta....looks so gud

MelindaRD said...

This looks great. I like the Indian dishes with eggplant. I also like eggplant parm, but my favorite would be baba ganoush. I husband somewhat recently learned that this is called aubergine in other countries. We were watching a documentary and there were subtitles. They were in Iraq and I was like why the heck are they talking about eggplants. He asked where I got eggplant from and I said the subtitle said aubergine. He now calls it that all the time.

Anonymous said...

the king of eggplant dishes. slurp

Ameena said...

Eggplant always intimidates me! And I usually don't like cooking it because it sucks up so much oil. But I love that this recipe doesn't need too much oil at all! I think I am going to give it a try soon.

I'm so glad I am not the only one who denied the relationship between food and my terrible skin for so long! I refused to believe that sugar was causing my breakouts because the dermatologist told me they were totally unrelated. But of course he would say that because if I knew the real truth he wouldn't get paid anymore, right? :)

tasteofbeirut said...

I just posted an eggplant dish; I must admit that eggplant is a vegetable I did not like growing up; now of course I do, in several ways, as a dip as in baba ghannouj or with yogurt, or tomato sauce; your curry sounds wonderful; I will try this version next time!

Parita said...

I love baigan bharta, its my fav!

Mother Rimmy said...

This is a must try for me. I get eggplant in my CSA and never know what to do with it. Thanks!

Simply Life said...

oh wow, that looks great!

Jessie said...

Beautiful recipe! Eggplant curry is one of my favorites. Baba ganoush is another of my favorites, especially as it's dry roasted and therefore a little lighter than many eggplant dishes :)