Baingan Bharta

How to make Baingan Bharta

Spiced roasted eggplant is nothing but Baingan Bharta; absolute winner!! In India on the flamed stove roast the eggplant till it gets caramelized in color and the aroma it spreads in the house is nothing but an appetite teaser!! Since I have coiled stove here I tried to bake/roast it in the oven and still got the taste I love; just hands down. This is a very good side dish with any kind of daal or a curry.

Here is what we need -

• 1 big eggplant
• 1 medium size onion
• 1 big size tomato
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs cumin seeds
• pinch of turmeric
• 2 green chilies
• 1/2 sp red chili powder
• salt per taste
• cilantro to garnish
• 3 tbs oil
• 1/2 spoon garam masala powder

Whats Next -

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Wash and slit the eggplant length wise to roast it faster. smear some oil to the skin and to the cut portion of the eggplant. Put it on the baking sheet with cut portion facing down. Bake it for 30 minutes and after that change the oven settings to Broil and keep it in for another 5-7 minutes. Take it out and keep aside to cool off. you can poke fork and check if its soft enough. you will see a nice brown/caramel color at the sides on the cut eggplant.

While you are baking the eggplant peel the garlic and chop it fine. Cut green chilies to very small pieces. Fine chop onion and tomato. Put oil in the heavy bottom pan, once hot add cumin seeds to it. In a few seconds add green chilies,garlic and saute it for a minute. Add chopped onion. In 5 minutes onion starts to become translucent then add tomatoes.

Check if eggplant it cooled off. With the help of fork separate the skin and its easily separable if the eggplant is baked properly. try to discard the seeds as much as you can. don't bother that much as they are completely edible but don't do much of a value add to the dish and to the health as well. so leaving it out is good !!
Mash the eggplant with the fork.

Now its enough time for the tomatoes to incorporate with rest of the masala. Add turmeric, chili powder and salt. Add mashed eggplant. Let it cook for 2 minutes. Add garam masala powder.

Take it out in the serving bowl and garnish it with cilantro.

OMG .. is what I said when I took the first bite :-)