Hyderabadi Bagara Baingan

Brinjal is called as king of vegetables, aptly so with a befitting crown. I wonder how some do not like this vegetable. Not too far from home, my daughter dislikes brinjal, be it in any form. Except for my princess, every one else at home loves brinjal. When I started  my terrace garden few years ago, brinjal was the first plant I grew in our balcony garden. Taste of home grown organic brinjals is unbeatable. These beauties come in different varieties, round purple ones, long purple ones, long greens and round green ones. We even have purple and green ones with white stripes. I prefer the plain purple round ones as their water content is little lesser and it works well for both dry vegetables and gravy ones too. However purple striped ones work fine too.

Hyderabadi bagara baingan is one of my favourites( must I say one of the numerous favourites :-)) . The shallow fried tender brinjals dumped in rich peanut + sesame spicy gravy is a treat to taste buds. No wonder this one – savoured with  both puris and rice equally well – used to be featured in almost all weddings or receptions in and around Hyderabad for ages. Our childhood memories of any wedding reception in Hyderabad are incomplete without the aroma of hot puris with bagara baingan and  pulao with raita. Needless to say it was part of my wedding reception menu too. This one is husband’s favourite and is made at home very often.

Over the past decade I have tried making this curry with various additions and changes and finally I have now found a perfect recipe which is for keeps. The recipe has one special ingredient, which seems so trivial in the whole picture, but still it is the one which enhances the flavour of this curry. To test it yourself, I urge all the readers to try this recipe with and without this ingredient and you can spot the difference right away.

So let us get going to see the ingredients list and process to stir up this delicacy.

Ingredients

1. Brinjals – Tender purple brinjals with healthy stalks. 
2.  Onions – 1 Medium sized ones sliced.
3. Peanuts – Roasted and skinned – 1 small cup
4. Nylon Til / Sesame  – 1 small cup
5. Dry coconut – 1/4 cup pieces
6. Poppy seeds – 2 Spoons
7. Coriander powder – 1 spoon
8. Red chilly powder – Per taste
9. Salt – Per taste
10. Tamarind – a small piece.
11. Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
12. Shah Jeera / Black cumins – 1 tsp
13. Bayleaf – 1
14. Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
15. Mint leaves – 6 to 8 leaves.

Procedure

1. Dry roast peanuts and once cooled skin them and keep them aside.
2. Now separately roast sesame seeds, coconut slices and poppy seeds. Add these to the skinned roasted peanuts.
3. Now dry roast onion till the moisture is slightly lost.
4. Now transfer all of the above to a grinding jar and add salt, chilli powder, coriander powder and tamarind. 
5. Grind into a thick paste adding a littler water.
6. Cut the tips of the brinjal stems slightly. If the brinjals are small, then just make a cross slit on its bottom, keeping the brinjal with stem intact. If brinjals are slightly larger, then slit them along with stem into 4 pieces length wise. Take a bowl of water and add 2 pinches of salt. Drop the brinjals into the salt water after cutting to not let them turn black.
7. In a skillet or kadhai heat oil. Now slide the brinjals draining all the water away into the oil.Shallow fry these and turn them once in a while. Once the brinjal skin gets a sheen move them to a plate draining the oil.
8. Now in the same oil add jeera, shah jeera and bay leaf. once they start spluttering, add ginger garlic paste.
9. Fry for a minute and then add the ground peanut sesame sauce.
10. Fry it for a minute or two and add 2 cups of warm or hot water. Bring the gravy to a boil.
11. Add the fried brinjal pieces and let everything come together.
12. Now chop the mint leaves and add these to the gravy. This would enhance the flavour. Try the recipe with and without the mint leaves and you can see the difference.
13. Continue to cook till you see oil separating out. Turn off the heat and transfer it to a serving bowl.
14. Serve with hot rice / jeera rice/ veg pulao or Puri/ rotis.