Monday, June 22, 2009

Baingan Bhaja | Begun Bhaja | Spicy Roasted Eggplants : Vegan Dish


The wait is over. My parents & in-laws landed here last week & all of them are enjoying in their own way. I cooked many new dishes to impress my mom-in-law, but failed in each attempt. As I am not used to cooking for 8 people at a time, I used to always go wrong while adding salt or tamarind. My MIL, being an excellent cook used to find the dishes not that tasty. My mom used to praise me (as expected, she is happy that I'm cooking so many new dishes). I kept on waiting for an opportunity to impress my MIL. She is not that fond of North Indian dishes & I have not yet mastered Udupi(South Canara) cuisine that she loves to eat.
Just as any other day, I decided to cook a bengali dish, Baingan Bhaja along with Punarpuli Saaru/Rasam. I had not seen her prepare punarpuli/kokum rasam & was almost sure that she would be captivated. When I presented the dish, the expression was ulta(opposite). All of them thoroughly enjoyed eating baingan bhaja. I cooked baingan bhaja using long purple eggplants & all of them relished that. Finally, I impressed all of them with this bhaja & especially my mom-in-law. (he he, I thought I would impress her with rasam but did with bhaja, whatever it be, I'm happy that I impressed them)
I have asked her the authentic recipe for punarpuli rasam & she is cooking the rasam tonite for all of us :) You guys have to wait for my coming posts for the authentic MIL's punarpuli saaru.

Ingredients for baingan bhaja
Long Purple eggplants or big rounded eggplants : 2 nos
Oil: 1 tbsp for each brinjal
Salt: According to taste
Chilli Powder: 1 tsp
Amchur Powder: 1/2 tsp
Chiroti rawa/small rawa or rice flour: 3 tbsp


Method:
  • Slice the eggplants & soak them in water for 15-20minutes.
  • Meantime, mix all the spice powders(amchur powder, chilli powder) including rawa or rice flour & salt.
  • Remove the slices from water & pat them dry.
  • Heat a griddle. When hot, add few drops of oil.
  • Dip both the sides of the eggplant slices in the spice powder mixture. Place these slices on the griddle, add few drops of oil to each slice & cook both sides on a medium heat for about 3-5 mins. Flip the slices and repeat
  • Serve it as a side dish for rice or roti. We love to eat our bhaja with khichdi
Notes:
(Updated on 17th May 2016). Instead of eggplants, you can use zucchini to make spicy roasted zucchini. It tastes awesome. 
Spicy Roasted Zucchini 

22 comments:

  1. it happened with me too..trying to impress my Mil.thi sone looks delicious...

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  2. i love baigan bhaja, my roomy had prepared this once and we all had enjoyed it so much, i love the use of amchur..yummy!

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  3. I do prepare quite similar to ur eggplant bhaja, urs looks amazing..

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  4. different yummy recipe..delicious

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  5. I don't even know why you bother to cook kane! I would have happily sat watching TV or reading some book making the 2 ladies battle it out in the kitchen :P
    But glad that you impressed your MIL. Yep, even I can't cook for so many people- I even have trouble with the dal measurement sighs. and yes, pizza temp. 500F.

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  6. It is so difficult to impress MILs right.. They are such good cooks and we are still in the testing phase ;) My MIL is very sweet and when ever I cook she is all appreciating and encouraging but then I do get to know what she really things about written clearly on her face!

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  7. Sounds yumm:) I too make this sometime :) your picture is so good

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  8. Hey. So sweet of you to think of cooking for everyone. I too tried impressing my MIL when I first got married and it didn't work. Now, when I'm at her place, I never take the pains to impress and cook normal food and to my surprise she was impressed. So, that's the trick.

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  9. Woow ! looks soo yummy ! Thanks for sharing

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  10. First time here. Nice blog. After knowing so many brinjal recipes, I find new ones everyday. Sounds simple n yumm!

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  11. Oh wow brinjal being my favourite....variations with it are always welcome...looks yum...

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  12. I make this with Khichdi most of the time .. yumm

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  13. Looks very tasty and spicy!!Yummy way to impress!!!
    Drop in sometime to my place!!

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  14. looks really delicious.. a simple and to prepare tasty baingan... i liked it a lot. Will try it.

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  15. @All,
    Thanks a lot ladies for all your warm comments.

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  16. yummy blog sush.. do check mine!

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  17. I made this. I now know why your mil was impressed. I kept eating it straight from the pan! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  18. @SJ,
    I'm glad that you liked it. It is also so very easy to prepare alwa??

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