The eggplant is a favorite vegetable of mine. You must know this already if you know anything about my predilection for this veggie-fruit. That’s right, the eggplant/aubergine/brinjal is botancially classified as fruit, you see, only, we don’t ever eat it raw like we do most fruits. Instead we cook it in every conceivable way: roast, fry, boil, stirfry, steam, bake, you name it. It is indeed a most interesting vegetable and is celebrated the world over and comes in so many shapes, sizes and colors.
Today, I made a very traditional Indian dish called Baingan ka Bharta. This is actually a no-nonsense, rustic and robust vegetarian dish that celebrates the eggplant with gusto. And here’s how you make it: the recipe calls for large and fleshy eggplant to be first grilled/baked/roasted; then the charred skin removed to get to all the pulpy flesh which is mashed up; and then it is seasoned with finely chopped onions, green chillies, garlic, tomatoes and a host of spices.
Serve it up with rotis/parathas or even rice, and you’ll be left licking your fingers and asking for more! Check out the series of pictures below that tells a recipe-story. [Incidentally, I roasted it in a frying pan with a few drops of oil on a low flame, covered with a domed lid so as to build up the steam.]
