Baingan ka Bharta
Baingan Ka Bharta
Baingan ka bharta is one of the most popular dishes of India. You can find it in the Menu of all the Indian Restaurants world wide. People love this and there are various versions of roasted eggplant, the Punjabi bharta is most popular. Silky in consistency, smoky on the nose and roaring with the full arsenal of Subcontinental spices, it sends one into fits of constant craving.
Eggplant is a member of the nightshade botanical family that includes tobacco and the potato. Technically, it’s a berry and a fruit, not a vegetable. Native to the Subcontinent, it’s a staple in Mother India’s kitchen and likely has been for the whole 5,000 years of trial-and-error.
When my American guests try the bharta, they usually love it. Not only is it relatively mild in its spicing – you can actually taste the flavour of the original vegetable, which is not always true of other Indian-style sabzis – but it is also a flavour that many people recognise immediately. Their reference point, though, is not some restaurant version of the dish – baingan bharta is not a popular dish at most Indian restaurants abroad among white people – but the baingan dishes of Middle Eastern cuisine. (Pundits may want me to point out that the baingan is a berry, in scientific terms, and not, technically speaking, a vegetable, but anyway, no one treats it as a fruit!
Now, let us make our Punjabi Baingan Bharta.
Ingredients:
- Baingan
- Onion-1
- Tomato-1
- Salt and chili powder (According to Taste)
- Coriander powder-3/4 tsp.
- Mustard or refined oil-2 tbsp.
- Ginger- thinly sliced
- Hing
Method
- First roast the eggplant.
- Remove the skin and mash the flesh.
- Heat oil in a vessel and add thinly sliced onions.
- Saute till lightly pink and add ginger, chopped tomatoes and all the spices and salt.
- Cover and cook till tomato is tender and mushy, now add mashed baingan.
- Cover and cook for about 5 minutes on low heat.
- Garnish and serve with chapatis/parathas or puris, rice and dal.
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