Remember as a pampered child how you have so many different names? Same is the story of BAINGAN / EGGPLANT/ AUBERGINE/BEGUN/BAIGANA and many more. I know very less people who do not like baingan (that to mostly because they are allergic) but it does bring water to their mouth too. But my love for baingan is so unconditional and pure that i can have it in any form. My mom makes this delicious paturi with fish & baingan dipped in mustard paste and sometimes she cooks it with poppy seeds and sometimes she just make a whole mixture of vegetable (we call it ghanto) with chana (Bengal gram) & I assure you they all are lip smackingly delicious. That chubby pulpy stuff is a lump of happiness for me. When teamed with right kind of spices Aubergine or baingan does wonder in the plate and one of the best ways to do it is by roasting it. No, we are not talking about bharta , We are talking about bharwa baingan/ bhara begun/ bhara baigana or stuffed eggplant. A beautiful exotic recipe i learned after shifting to Delhi. The ingredients are in the picture & the recipe is as follows:-
· Wash the baby baingan (aubergines) gently and slit it length wise from the base to stalk dividing it in to 4 equal parts, keeping the stalk intact with the body.
· Heat some oil in a pan, add black & regular cumin seeds, stir it for a while & then add the chopped garlic, onions and tomatoes, sauté it until they are golden brown.
· Mix the turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder & coriander powder in a bowl with some water and make a paste out of it.
· Pour in the mixture in to the pan and fry it with the masala. Add some chopped cilantro and green chilies for flavor & some salt to taste. Keep stirring until the masala is ready to be stuffed in the baingan.
· Add the baingan & turn it around few times in the pan, once it is roasted start stuffing the masala in to the slit by the help of a spoon.
· Simmer the heat & cover it for 5 to 10 minutes. In-between keep checking and turning the baingan around so that they get roasted along with the masala from all the sides.
· Serve hot with rice or paratha.
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