Begun Bhaja/ Aubergine fry

Brinjal – aubergine – egg plant, whatever you call it, it tastes the same. I remember those nights when mom used to fry aubergine. The smell loomed over the whole household. Aubergine fry or begun bhaja is one of my favorites. I love them with roti.

Yesterday when I went to the nearby supermarket, I saw a big placard hanging on top of the aubergine basket. It was a whole list of the nutrient contents of aubergine. I am not sure though that those nutrient value retains after deep frying. Navita had written a post on aubergine fry, you cannot fry aubergine in a different style but I have one ingredient more to let the aubergine absorb less oil.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Aubergine (Begun): 1 medium size

Turmeric powder (Halud Guro): ¼ teaspoon

Sugar (Chini): ¼ teaspoon

Mustard oil (Sarser Tel) for deep frying

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Cut the aubergine in 2 inches width circles
• Put spices over the cut aubergine pieces
• Heat oil in a deep frying pan , when fumes comes out of the oil fry the egg plants

Aubergine absorbs too much oil while frying, so it is best to wrap them with blotting paper before serving. It’s my mom’s tip to put little sugar which also helps the aubergine to absorb less oil.

Check for more updates here, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

Begun Morichut

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This is my fiftieth post here on this blog. I thank all my blog visitors for giving me the courage and inspiration to go ahead and write new posts on my blog, and most of all I thank my parents and sister. My mom who taught me to love the art of cooking, and my father though never enters the kitchen always find it tempting to know whats cooking on my blog. My little sister who is always busy taking photographs of every step and every ,eal I cook, when I am at home in Kolkata.

To mark this happy event for me, I have prepared  a typical dish which hails from Chittagong in Bangaladesh‘. Now, this is a bit tricky, why should I be cooking something that sounds and tastes like a typical Bangladeshi dish. The answer is simple, my grandfathers, both from my father’s as well as from my mother’s sides were inhabitants of then unpartitioned Bengal. After the partition in 1947, they came and settled in Kolkata. As everybody say you can take out the Bengali from Bengal, but not the Bengal from the Bengali, so was it. At home our cooking style resembles those of the people of Bangladesh, though I am the third generation who is living in India and never had a luck to see the place where my grandparents were born and lived the best days of their lives.

Morichut is a typical naming for any curry in their native language of Chittagong. I love this one with eggs and aubergines. Morichut also can be made using potatoes. May be I’ll write a post on that sometime later.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Aubergine (Choto Begun): 200gms

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size

Eggs (Dim): 2

Mustard Oil (Sarser Tel): ½ teaspoon

Turmeric Powder (Halud Guro): ½ teaspoon

Green Chili (Kacha Lanka): 1 or 2

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a shallow wok
• Add the onions to sauté as the oil gets heated
• Toss in the aubergine cut into small square shaped pieces and fry till they are partly cooked
• Add salt, turmeric and the green chili
• Keep aside the half cooked egg plants, and heat 1 teaspoon of oil and add the eggs.
• Scramble the eggs and add it to the half cooked aubergine
• Cook till the aubergine gets cooked

It tastes good with roti, paratha or even rice. So cook it and have with anything you like.

Look for more update on this blog, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating .

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Baigan Bharta

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Last five days I am all done with a heavy cold and extreme head aches. All of these sickness made me stay out of kitchen for these. I am speding time more on the bed than anywhere else at home. This morning when at last I thought of visiting the near by doctor, he gave me a shock. He prescribed with lots of medicine and talked about me having rhinocitis. The term reminded me of that Khaziranga National Forest rinos with a horn at the place of nose. Now, coming to the graver part, he suggested that if these problems do not get better by the next 5 days and with all these medications then it is presumably a case of sinusitis and in that case I need to a have a CT scan done. CT scan !!!! O dear Lord !!! I am an absolute claustrophobic, I can’t stay inside a lift for more than a few seconds and he was asking me to have a CT scan done, that means staying inside that whole for more than half-an hour. I was feeling worse with this news than with all of these running nose, blocked ears and head aches.

I had cooked up Baigan Bharta as a side dish for last night dinner. My brain going haywire with the news from the doctor this morning, it think it will look like a bharta and nothing less. So thought of writing this post.

The Big Fat Brinjal - ready to roast

Serves 4

Ingredients

Eggplant (Begun) : 1 big size

Onions (Peyaj): 3 large size, julienned

Tomato: 2 medium size, cut into squares

Green chilli (kacha Lanka): 4, cut into ringlets

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon

Coriander leaves(Dhaniya pata) chopped for garnishing

Salt to taste

Lemon juice (Pati lebur raus): 1 tablespoon, optional

Preparation:

• Prick the brinjal with a fork or knife.
• Roast the eggplant, so that it gets softened and the skin starts coming out of it.
• Take the skin out of the eggplant, mash and  keep it aside
• Heat oil in a wok
• Toss in the onion. Sauté till softens
• Add the mashed eggplant to the onions along with tomatoes, turmeric powder, chili ringlets and salt.
• Cook till the eggplant dries, take care that it doesn’t get stick to the bottom of the wok.
• Take out of flame and garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice.

Baigan bharta is best tasted with roti or parantha. Though I had to roast the eggplant on a gas oven, it tastes and smells best when roasted over a charcoal oven.

Baigan Bharta

Catch me with more updates on this blog, till then

Happy Cooking and Happy Eating

As I have not used any electrical or electronic gadgets to cook this, my post is heading for the ‘Power’ less cooking event

hosted by Simple Indian Food

This is of great joy for me to send in my post to Devon Ave: Indian-Jewish Adventure! hosted by Joelen.

Baigan Bharta goes to fight the other Eat Healthy-Fight Diabetes entries hosted by Sangeeth.

Check for more updates on this blog, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

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