Baigana Alu Posto ( Eggplant cooked with Poppy seeds )

The last few days have been tough on me. As if a seasonal flu coupled with throat infection wasn't bad enough, the balmy weather in Blore has been making things worse. The kid does not want to be cooped up inside the house, meals/groceries are getting delayed thanks to rains and traffic snarls, and I am constantly feeling drowsy thanks to a combination of factors.  Even the latest Harry Potter book is not temptation enough for me to keep my eyes open. A few pages ( or rather dialogues coz this book is written for a stage play ) down and I am dozing off blissfully.

So, the meals have been reduced to the very basic dal-chawal or dal-roti with one dry curry. Any cribs from the boys are strictly being ignored. The pickle is accessible to all and hubby dear can just about manage an omelette for himself.

Kid has been busy with figuring out the intricacies of the capital and small alphabets. The gaps in between are taken up by story telling sessions where he just lets his fantasy take flight. To sum it up, my folks are managing rather well by themselves .

But the pace at which I had been working on my blog has slowed down significantly. Last 3-4 weeks, I was editing my old posts, redoing the pics of some of the recipes and rarely finding the time to post new ones. But this week I havn't really managed to get anything done. Except for this very basic recipe which is just an adaptation of our 'Janhi Alu posto'.

This recipe came to exist when I purchased a batch of the green aubergines (long ones) as I could not find any decent veggies at the neighbouring shop. I discovered that they are quite bland and even somewhat bitter in taste. Since I had to somehow use them, I cooked them with potato and poppy seeds paste. It improved their taste by a large extent and I was able to use up the entire batch over 2-3 meals.

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients -

• 1 cup sliced aubergine ( I cut them into a half moon shape )
• 1 medium sized potato ( chopped into small pieces )
• 1 small onion ( chopped into medium sized bits )
• 2 garlic flakes (crushed)
• 1-2 dry red chili
• 1/5 tsp pancha phutana
• 2-3 pinch turmeric
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp mustard oil

For the paste -

• 1-2 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 garlic flakes 
• 1 green chili ( only if you want it to be spicy. I skipped )

Preparation - Dry grind the poppy seeds in the small jar /chutney jar of your mixer. Then add garlic, green chili and a little bit of water. Grind into a somewhat coarse paste. Keep aside.

Cooking - Heat the oil in a wok. Add broken red chili and pancha phutana. Once it gets spluttering, add the crushed garlic and allow it to turn golden brown.

The onion goes in next. Fry to a translucent.

Add the aubergine and potatoes. Cook on a medium - low flame till 70 percent done.

Now add the poppy seeds paste along with 1/3 cup water, salt and turmeric. Cook covered on low flame till all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from flame. Drizzle with a dash of mustard oil for better flavour.

Serve hot with white rice and dal.