Bagara Baingan
Bagara Baingan is a traditional Hyderabadi dish which is made using shallow fried eggplants that are simmered in a nutty based gravy primarily consisting of peanut, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and coconut.
Ingredients
- 600 gms Brinjal or Eggplant small sized purple ones
- 3 Onions medium sized
- 1 Tomato medium sized
- Tamarind lemon sized soaked in half cup water
- 2 sprigs Curry Leaves
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 1 inch Ginger
- 2 Green Chillies
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 3 tsp Kashmiri red Chilli Powder
- ¼ tsp Asafoetida
- 1 tsp Dhaniya or Coriander Powder
- 2 tbsp Fresh Coriander finely chopped
- 5 tbsp Oil
- Oil for frying eggplants
- Salt to taste
For Masala Paste
- 2 tbsp Peanuts
- 2 tbsp Poppy Seeds
- 2 tbsp White Sesame Seeds
- 1 tsp Onion Seeds or Kalonji
- ¼ tsp Methi or Fenugreek Seeds
- 3 tbsp Coconut grated
Instructions
- Wash the brinjal and dry well using a kitchen towel. Carefully slit four ways only till the middle.
- Shallow fry the brinjals in oil on medium flame till golden brown. Fry the brinjal immediately after slitting them else they would turn black.
- Sauté 3 roughly chopped onion in some oil on medium flame till nice and brown.
- Cool the onions and grind with 2 tablespoons of water to a fine paste
- For the main masala, dry roast separately all the above mentioned ingredients (masala paste) on low flame till it slightly changes colour and you get an aroma. Cool the ingredients.
- Grind the masala ingredients in a mixer to a smooth paste. Add some water only after grinding the ingredients dry initially, else the masala would not be ground smooth.
- Pound garlic, ginger, half green chilli, a pinch of salt and few leaves of coriander in pestle and mortar to make a fine paste.
- In a kadai, heat 5 tablespoons oil, add the freshly minced ginger garlic paste, few curry leaves, 1 slit green chilli and add the onion paste. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Now add one finely chopped tomato and also the pulp extracted from the soaked tamarind. Let it come to a gentle boil. Later add asafoetida, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, dhaniya powder and some salt and cook till the oil separates.
- Next add the ground masala and around 1 cup water and cook again till the oil separates.
- Next add the shallow fried brinjals and cover and cook for around 8 to 10 minutes on a medium flame. Keep stirring in between as the nutty mixture tends to settle at bottom. Also add water if required. Cook till you see oil floating on top.
- Finally garnish with fresh chopped coriander.
Notes
- Pick the small sized, bright purple brinjals for this dish. If you are not able to find them, you could also use the light purple one with lines. If you find only the large aubergine, then you cut in large chunks and substitute for the small brinjals.
- Make sure to wipe the brinjals well after washing before frying, else the oil could sputter. The brinjals must not be fully cooked after frying, as it would be cooked further in the gravy.
- Be careful while dry roasting the nuts, as they could easily burn quickly. So roast them on a low flame one by one.
- Blend the nuts to a very fine paste, else the texture of the gravy would not be smooth.
- Do not brown the onions on high flame, as it would not yield the desired sweetness. So cook the onions on medium flame till they turn brown. You could add some salt to accelerate the browning.
- Freshly ground ginger garlic paste works best for this dish, however you could also use the readymade ginger garlic paste.
- This dish traditionally demands slightly higher amount of oil, as the oil must float on top of the gravy. However if you are health conscious, then you could cut down the amount of oil as required.
- This gravy is usually kept slightly thick, however you could adjust the consistency as per your liking. Do note that the gravy tends to become slightly thicker once cooled, hence adjust the water accordingly while cooking.