Hyderabadi Bagara Baingan

This post is ‘Mandatory’ for me. I took a weeks break from my routine to visit my family. And when I came back home, the blogger in me just left. I didn't feel like cooking and I didn't have patience to sit and write a single post. So I forcefully cooked this dish to bring myself back to who I was before my vacation. I may have cooked this dish forcefully but I have to tell you its lip smacking with every mouthful. Specialty from one of my favourite cuisines it’s the HYDERABADI BAGARA BAINGAN…This dish is somewhat similar to the Biryani Kathirikai the Muslims particularly in Chennai prepare to go along with their mouth watering Biryani. Its more spicy and tingly compared to the bagara baingan which is milder yet very flavorful Bagara means tempering in spices and baingan means brinjals or eggplants. So basically Bagara Baingan is ‘tempered Eggplants’ served with roti or Naan.

I was only able to give the step by step pictorial representation but not the picture of my end product. My laptop just shut down on my yesterday and when everything was finally up, all my pic were lost…never keep important stuff without a backup.

Don't worry the picture is up :) Finally!!!

Pardon my disfigured eggplant ;)

I adapted this recipe from one of my favourite chefs, Aditya Bal in his show Chakh le India!

Serves 3

You Will Need:

5 Eggplants / Brinjals

1 Large Onion Finely Chopped

4 Green Chillies Finely Chopped

A tbsp of Ginger Garlic Paste

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

Tsp Cumin Powder

1 1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
A tsp og Crushed Kasuri Methi

A Lemon Sized Tamarind Soaked in a Cup and a half of Water

Red Chilli Powder (if Required)

Freshly Chopped Coriander to garnish

Salt to Taste

2 tbsp Oil

To be Ground into a Paste:

A Tbsp of Sesame Seeds / 1 tsp of Poppy Seeds (Don't dry roast)

2 tbsp of Ground Nuts

2 tbsp of Grated Coconut

The Cooking:

Heat a pan with a tbsp of oil and sauté the brinjals for 7 - 10 mins on medium high heat. It will turn a light brown color and half cooked. Turning the flame high saute for a min. Taking off heat, cover and let it rest till you go about roasting and grinding the masalas. What this does is, the eggplants get a really nice smoky flavor to it.

Dry roast the sesame seeds and ground nuts separately on medium high heat tossing constantly, so that it doesn't burn. Set it aside to cool down.

Am never good in grating coconut. So what i do is, keep the freshly broke open coconut in fridge for 15 min. Then cut out medium sized cubes of coconut and place them in a mixer. Put the lid on and pulse few times. NOT GRINDING ON FULL SPEED. Just pulse the mixer.

You know what, you actually don’t need grated coconut at all for this. Anyway you are going to blend it together. So you can use just cubed coconut directly.

Now blend this coconut with the cooled sesame and ground nuts into a fine paste adding required water.

Heat the pan with 2 tbsp of oil, and add the finely chopped chilies. Chilies give a spice, a nice aroma to the gravy, so add chilies according your resistance to heat. Then toss in the chopped onions and sauté till golden brown.

Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for 2 – 3 mins. Then tip in the coconut paste.

Give it a good stir. Add the kasuri methi, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Stir well over high heat till the gravy begins to lump and sticks no more to bottom of the pan.