Bharva Baigan

I saw a recipe for stuffed brinjal in a book, which used chopped lamb meat for the stuffing. I liked the idea and wanted to give it a try. But I had to look for another option for stuffing as my husband is vegetarian. So while pondering over what to use, I decided to use the brinjal flesh that was scooped out to make the stuffing. So its actually brinjal stuffed with brinjal ;).

Ingredients

Brinjal - 1  big

Chopped onions - 1 medium

Chopped tomatoes - 1 medium
Chopped green chillies - 5
Chopped coriander

Salt

Turmeric powder

Garam masala

Note: I used oven and microwave to prepare this dish. The microwave part can be done on stove top also.i pre-heated the oven to 350 F.

Process

1. If using microwave take a microwave safe bowl otherwise use a frying pan. Add onions and oil to the vessel and cook for 3-4 mins. Add the tomatoes and green chillies, cook for another 2-3 mins.
2. Add salt, turmeric powder and garam masala. Mix well.
3. Prepping the brinjal: cut the brinjal into half (length wise). Scoop out the flesh from them, becareful not to make the brinjal shell too thin. Coat the shell with some oil.

4. Chop the scooped out flesh and add to fried onion and tomatoes. Fry for sometime. These need not be cooked for long as they will cook in the oven. Add some chopped coriander to this.

5.  Take a baking pan, grease it with some oil and put the brinjal shells on it. Then stuff the above mix into the brinjal shell and put it in the pre-heated oven for 20 - 30 mins.

6. Keep checking so that the they don't get burnt. Take out before the top layer starts to char. Becareful while taking it out, its going to be hot ;).

7. It goes well with both roti and rice. Try adding grated paneer to the stuffling or your own stuffing recipe. Good luck.

Jeera Baigan

Its a recipe I came up with when I didn't feel like spending lots of a time cooking. Its a really simple recipe goes well with rice as well as rotis. Hope you enjoy it :)

Ingredients

Chopped Brinjal - 4 to 5 cups
Roasted cumin or jeera powder - 2 tbsp
Black mustard seeds
Salt
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp

Process

1. Put some oil in cooking pan and heat.
2. Add the mustard seed and lets them pop. Then the add the urad dal and stir till the urad dal becomes slightly golden.
3. Add the chopped brinjal ( I used 1 big fat brinjal). Let it fry.
4. Add salt to taste, cumin powder and fry for some time. Keep stirring to avoid brinjal being stuck to bottom.
5. When brinjal starts becoming soft, add the roasted jeera powder.

Note: You can change the spices measurement according to your taste. Various other combination of spices will also work well I guess. Have to keep trying ;)