For the last two days Apoorva was really sick with cold, cough and throat pain – so I wanted to pack something really good for her school lunch box. At 6:00 in the morning I decided to prepare baigan ka bharta. She doesn’t like baigan ki sabzi (though I don’t spare her for that) but she loves bharta a lot! If I prepare bharta for dinner, she keeps the rice aside and wants to have one extra roti to relish with her favorite bharta.
So when she came back from school I asked her if she liked her lunch. She said that she was barely managing to get some baharta for herself because all her friends wanted their share!!!
Who wouldn’t love to hear such nice stories about his\her cooking😂😂.
But honestly there are so many people who don’t want to eat brinjal veggie, but if you cook this bigger size oval shaped balloon brinjal in a different way, they love it. So, if you are interested in learning how to cook brinjal in such a different way that it becomes every one’s favorite, let’s start…….
Tips:
1. Always buy big size balloon brinjal to prepare bharta.
2. Check brinjal by slightly pressing it; if it’s too hard, don’t buy because there will be many ripened seeds inside and they don’t taste good at all. Buy the one which is fresh and soft.
3. Always check minutely if there is a tiny hole – if it is there, don’t buy….. it means insects have entered inside..and it’s their cave, so leave this cave for them……..generally it happens a lot during rainy season.
4. Keep a careful eye while roasting brinjal… burnt brinjal wouldn’t taste good.
Ingredients :
2 big size brinjals
3 medium size chopped onions
2 medium size chopped tomatoes
3-4 choppped green chillies
1/2 tsp grated ginger
salt… as per your taste
3 – 4 tbsp oil
5 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp rai
1/8 tsp asafotida
Finely chopped green coriander leaves
Process:
Roast brinjal either in your oven or gas top as per your convenience, till it is soft and tender.
At the end of the roasting, brinjals will shrink and will be very soft. Make sure not to burn them.
Keep them aside and let them cool down. Heat up oil in a pan and crackle rai, cumin seeds and asafotida. Add chopped onions and sauté them till they are light brown. Add chopped tomatoes, green chillies, grated ginger, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and a pinch of salt. Mix all together and let it cook on sim heat till tomatoes are cooked. Keep on turning this mix upside down in between.
By now roasted brinjals would have cooled down. Peel out their outer skin carefully and take out all the pulp in a pan and mash it.
Add this to onion tomato mix and add salt as per your taste. Mix well, cover it and let it cook for 4 – 5 minutes.
As brinjals are roasted, tomatoes and onions are already cooked, so this 5 minutes time is sufficient to absorb all the flavours by brinjal pulp. Add some finely chopped coriander leaves and mix it. Switch off gas and shift bharta in a serving bowl, sprinkle some more coriander leaves and serve with your meal.
