Hyderabadi Bagara Baingan

As we keep mentioning that Hyderabad has special place in our heart, same is true for its food. We did not spend a lot of time in that city, but whatever we did, we did enjoying its wonderful cuisine. From the biryani's to the chicken curries.

So this weekend, when we had time on our side, we decided to cook their extremely popular delicacy - Bagara Baingan. Its a fresh twist on a seemingly boring vegetable. Its full of spices but not the teekha types - they are mellow and gel extremely well to create an intoxicating mixture. A must try !!

Ingredients

6-8 small purple Brinjals

2 Medium Onions( Finely chopped)

1/2 cup Tamarind water

Turmeric Powder

Chilli powder

1  tsp Sugar

Cumin

3 cloves of garlic

½ inch piece Ginger

1 Green chilli

Salt to taste

To roast and grind base masala

One Onion (chopped and sautéed in 1 tsp oil)

2 tbsp Peanuts

One tsp Sesame Seeds

One tsp Nigella seeds(Kalunji)

Half tsp Methi seeds

Half tsp Cumin seeds

Half tsp Mustard seeds

Method

1. Slit the brinjals and shallow fry them in two tsp oil and keep it aside.

2. Dry roast all the ingredients under base masala category and grind the, into paste. Add water if required

3. Heat oil in kadhai and add cumin to it. Then add green chilly, ginger -garlic paste once cumin crackles.

4.  Sautee chopped onion till golden brown

5. Add base masala to it. And add Turmeric and red chilli powder (I used degi mirch here for color)

6. Add 1 sp sugar to it and also add tamarind water to it

7. Add shallow fried brinjals to it and cover it and cook it for 15 mins till brinjals soak masala. Keep stirring in between.

8. Garnish with coriander and serve hot.