Bagara Baingan

Learnt From: Vahrehvah.

Serving for: 5-6 People

Ingredients:

(Don’t get scared of the lengthy list of ingredients. If you do cooking regularly … all the ingredients are available at your home only. Check out the list. Just get fresh, small and round brinjals from the market.)

Brinjals --- 8 – 10
Peanuts --- 1 cup
Sesame Seeds --- 3 tblsn
Dry Coconut Powder --- 2 tblsn
Cinnamon Stick --- 1
Cloves --- 3
Cardamom --- 3 pods
Bay Leaf --- 1
Mustard Seeds --- 1 ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds --- ½ tsp
Green Chilies --- 2
Onion --- 1
Curry Leaves --- 7-8
Turmeric Powder --- a pinch
Ginger-Garlic Paste --- ½ tsp
Coriander Powder --- 1 tblsn
Cumin Powder --- 1 tblsn
Red Chilly Powder --- 1 tsp
Tamarind --- small lemon size ball
Jaggery --- a tblsn (optional)
Salt --- as per taste
Oil --- for deep fry

Process:

Heat a tblsn of oil in a pan. Add a cup of peanuts. Fry till they are ¾ th done. Add 3 tblsn of sesame seeds and dry coconut powder. Fry till sesame seeds are done. ( I don’t have dry coconut powder. So I used shredded coconut at the time of grinding)

Transfer the fried ones to a blender. Blend coarsely by adding around a cup of water to it. Keep tht aside.


Heat oil for deep fry in a pan.
Chop 2 green chilies and 1 onion. Keep them aside.
Clean brinjals along with stems with water. Opposite to the stem part of the brinjals cut ¾ th of the brinjal towards stem. Cut like Plus mark. Keep all the rest of the brinjals in the same way and keep them in salted water. (If you keep them in normal water the colour and the taste of the brinjals change. To prevent that … keep them in salted water.)
Clean lime size tamarind with water. Add little water to it. Micro-wave for 30 seconds. Extract tamarind juice out of it by adding ¾ cup of water.
When the oil is at right hot. Deep fry the brinjals till they are 3/4th done.



Heat 7-8 tblsn of oil in a wide pan.
Add a cinnamon stick by breaking it, 3 pods of cardamoms, 3-5 cloves and a bay leaf. Fry them.
Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
Add chopped green chilies and onion.
Add enough salt to the onions.


Fry till the onion turn to brown colour.
Add curry leaves and a pinch of turmeric powder.
Fry for a while.
Add ½ tsp of ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a while.
Add 2 cups of water.
Add a tblsn of coriander powder and a tblsn of cumin powder and ¾ tsp of red chilly powder. Fry for a while.
Turn the heat to medium.
Add blended peanuts-sesame-coconut paste.


Cover it and boil.
Add tamarind juice and enough salt to the gravy.
Add a tblsn of jaggery if you like. I didn’t add jaggery to my dish.
Again cover it and boil.
Boil it still the oil loses.

Taste it and adjust the salt.
Add fried brinjals to the gravy.


Cook it on medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes.


Turn off the heat.
Transfer the curry to a serving bowl.


Have it with biryani or with rice.