Bagara Baingan ~ Hyderabad style Eggplants in Peanut-Coconut Sauce

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I guess we all would love to travel some or the other time. I would love to travel, however having a spouse who is not very keen to go around and prefers to be stuck more with his work doesn’t make it a possibility. In turn, B keeps travelling on and off. After an expensive trip to UK last year, he took a break for six months to recoup and then travelled to Hong Kong and Tunisia this year already. My fridge is slowly filling up with his magnets. 😀 My girls keep cribbing that we go nowhere. I just tell them to be patient and InShaAllah, we will go someday. Travelling with a family isn’t cheap though, but with loads of options now, I guess we all must plan in at-least one trip a year, even if it maybe by skipping the trip back home. After having talked to him constantly about the “need” to travel, he is slowly warming up to the idea, but with lot of precautions. 😀 Do you all travel and how often? How do you manage the expenses? Do pour in your tips, would love to know… 🙂

I don’t have a family who likes brinjal, nor do I. I don’t know why I find it so tasteless… maybe because I don’t cook it properly! The only way we have eaten it while growing up was in this parippu curry umma would make for lunch. Even if she makes an upperi (stir fry), we wouldn’t touch it, so then she gave up on it. Recently, I learned to have a soft corner for it through the Batu Moju. Once during my grocery shopping, I saw these small pretty aubergines staring at me. They were too cute to ignore, that I ended up picking up a few. Once home, I was wondering what to do with it. That’s when I decided to pull out “666 Curries“. This humongous book is a treat if you are curry lover. From vegetables to eggs to poultry to meat, you will find every possible curry recipe in this book. You know what is the other best part? It is categorized per vegetable – so you will find all cabbage recipes together, brinjal recipes together, paneer recipes together, and so on. My eyes immediately fell on this very interesting dish, which is very popular in Hyderabad and even in our neighboring Pakistan as well.

It is a little bit of work but the end result was really lip-smacking! I had made it as side for our weekend lunch and we licked off the plates. The masala paste used is flavorful and amazing to say the least. This would be amazing with some biriyani on the side too, or even mopping it off with some chapathis. I would only say that the dish is totally worth the effort. The splitting, frying, the making of the paste, from start to finish is an experience in itself. Each stage leaves so much aroma in the kitchen that you can’t wait to eat it once completely done! 😀 I normally don’t get so excited about vegetarian dishes but this one did blow the sock off! Moving on to the recipe…

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5 from 1 vote

Baghare Baingan ~ Fried Eggplants in Peanut-Coconut Sauce

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 4 -6

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup peanuts
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 coriander seeds
• 1/4 cup grated coconut
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 small onion sliced
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 6 small aubergines
• 1 tsp ghee
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 dry red chillies
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

Instructions

• Heat a skillet. Toast the peanuts till lightly browned. Empty into a bowl.
• In the same skillet, toast the sesame and coriander seeds till fragrant. Add it to the peanuts.
• Add the coconut and toast till it becomes light brown. Add into the bowl.
• Add 1 tbsp of the oil and fry the onions till golden brown. Allow it to cool.
• Now add the onion along with the oil and all the toasted ingredients into a grinder jar. Add a sprinkle of water and grind to a course paste. Add more water if necessary.
• Wash and clean the eggplants. Slit the eggplants into a plus sign till just the end, do not cut through the skin.
• Heat a skillet with the remaining oil and toss the aubergines till slightly blistered and cooked, around 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• In the same skillet, heat the ghee and fry the cumin seeds. Add the dry chillies and ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell is gone.
• Add the ground paste and cook for a couple of minutes. Add some water to make the sauce thick, preferable the water used to shake the jar.
• Add the aubergines back and keep on low flame, stirring occassionally, for around 5 minutes to absorb the flavors.
• Serve hot as side for biriyanis, with rice and curry, or with chapathis.