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Showing posts with label eggplant recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eggplant recipe. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2016

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.




Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Vangi Baath (Brinjal rice)

Vangi baath or brinjal rice is a spicy and sour rice dish (with a hint of sweetness which is optional) that is quite easy to prepare. Though I had tasted this for the first time in Hyderabad, I did not quite like it at the time. But it was reintroduced to me by one of my roomies who used to cook it with a special home-made masala and I have been a fan ever since. Maybe the fact that she was a Kannada Brahmin made all the difference. After all, its origins are attributed to the Brahmin community of Karnataka.

I made it with parboiled rice ( which is healthier) but usually people make it with raw rice. I quickly made a bit of 'Vangi baath masala' at home (got the recipe on net) but it is quite easily available in the shops. And even my kid likes it when I reduce the amount of 'Vangi baath' masala and add a sprinkling of jaggery. Read on for the recipe:





Preparation Time - 15 mins ( if you have cooked rice else add time needed to prepare rice )

Ingredients -


  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 1/2 cups sliced brinjal
  • 8-10 cashews
  • 2 tsp channa dal
  • 1/2 tsp thick tamarind paste
  • 1 red chilli
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 4 tsp cooking oil
  • 2 pinch turmeric
  • salt to taste


For the Vangi baath Masala


  • 2 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds
  • 6-7 cloves
  • 2 red chilli
  • 1 marathi moggu
  • 1 inch cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp split urad dal
  • 1 tsp oil


Preparation - Add a little salt and turmeric to the brinjal slices. Keep aside for 10 mins.
Cooking - Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan. Add all the ingredients for Vangi Baath Masala and fry till a  fragrance starts to fill the kitchen. Remove and allow to cool a bit. Grind into a fine powder.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Add the brinjal slices and fry till cooked.

Add 1 1/2 tsp of the Vangi Baath Powder ( I keep it less spicy ) along with the tamarind paste (diluted with 3-4 tsp water). Fry for 1 minute.

Add the cooked rice and mix in. Adjust salt.

Heat 1 tsp oil for the tempering. Add broken red chilli, mustard seeds and channa dal. After channa dal turns a little brown, add cashews. Pour the tempering over the rice. Mix in.

Serve hot with yogurt and papad.



















Note - If you like a hint of sweetness, add about 1-2 tsp powdered jaggery while adding the tamarind paste.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Aam Kasundi Begun (Eggplant in a mango-mustard sauce)

Aam Kasundi Begun. Sounds almost poetic, doesn't it ???. Ever since I read this name in the TOI last week,  I have been scouring the net and some of my cookbooks/paper cuttings to get the exact recipe. After referring  quite a few sources (including Bong Mom's Cookbook) , I decided to take a bit from here and a bit from there. And the result was almost magical. It surpassed my expectations by a plenty of notches. Tangy, tart, hot, titillating, fragrant.

This is the first time I made it. And since I havn't tasted an authentic 'Kasundi' dish ever, I can not vouch for its authenticity. But the taste is something that I can vouch for...quite unforgettable. "Cholbe naa", I can almost see some of my Bong friends shaking their heads. And I almost wish for Ushnish da to appear out of thin air and reveal the magical recipe to me. On second thoughts, I think I will drop a note to him and ask him to rate my recipe. Till then this has to do (already planning for an encore on Thursday).

Read on for my version of an 'Aam Kasundi Begun':


















Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients -


  • 2 cups sliced eggplant
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp grated coconut
  • 4 tsp roughly chopped raw mango
  • 2 garlic flakes
  • 2 green chillis
  • 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
  • 1/5 tsp turmeric
  • salt to taste
  • 3 tsp mustard oil


Preparation - Add a little salt and turmeric to the eggplant slices. Keep aside for 15 mins.

Dry grind (fine powder) the mustard seeds first. Then add raw mango, coconut, green chilli, coriander and garlic flakes to the same grinder cup along with a few teaspoons water. Grind into a smooth paste.

Cooking - Heat the oil in a wok till it smokes.

Add the eggplant slices and stir fry till almost done.

Add the kasundi paste and coat all the slices. Fry for 1-2 minutes.

Add 1 cup boiling water and cover with a lid. Cook on medium heat till almost all the water evaporates.

Serve with white rice.



















Note - If you find mustard to be too hot/spicy, then replace half of the quantity of mustard used with poppy seeds. Also treble the quantity of coconut used in the gravy to mellow it further.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Stuffed Baingan Bharta




















Cooking Time required : 30-35 mins
Cost of preparation: 20-25 rupees

Ingredients: Brinjal/Egg plant/Aubergine ( 1 no, large ), onion ( 1 medium ), garlic pods ( 5-6 nos ), green chilli ( 2-3 nos ), red chilli powder ( 1/ 2 tsp ), sour curd ( 1 tsp ), mustard oil ( 2 tsp ), cumin powder ( 1/2 tsp ), finely cut coriander leaves ( 2 tbs ), salt.

Preparation: Slice off the top of the brinjal. Make a deep hole into the brinjal and remove some of the inner core. Rub in the sour curd inside the hole.

Cut the onion into small pieces. Crush the garlic pods and cut the green chillis into long pieces.

Cooking: Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan. Add half of the onion pieces and crushed garlic pods along with the red chilli powder and salt . Stir fry till reddish brown.















Remove from the pan and stuff inside the brinjal.















Make slits along the length of the brinjal, Rub in salt and mustard oil. Put back the sliced top of the brinjal and secure it with toothpicks and pins.















Put inside a pre-heated oven/microwave and roast for 15 mins at alternate temperature of 150 degrees and 200 degrees for 5 mins each.

Remove from the oven and cover with a vessel for 5-10 mins.

When the brinjal is cooled down a bit, remove the outer peel of the brinjal. Add the salt, cumin powder, green chilli, remaining mustard oil , onion pieces and coriander leaves. Mash togather .

Serve hot with rice or roti.


Stuffed Eggplant - "Bharwa Baingan"

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