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Lunch thali has to be soulful. A short break to help you energise to get through the rest of the day, having a nutritious and tasty plate is as important as attending the impending meeting. To add comforting flavours to your meal, you can make baingan bharta, add a smoky touch, and feel closer to home.
Indian thalis are always comforting. No matter where you are on the planet, if there’s one thing that can help you feel closer to home, it’s food, and that too, the dishes that your mother must’ve made for you. If you’ve grown up in a typical North Indian family, the holiday season often involves a serving of baingan ka bharta.
The smoky aroma of charred baingal starts well before lunchtime and is then made with finely chopped onion, tomatoes, and seasoned with a blend of spices. While in earlier times the earthy vegetable was roasted in a chulha, over coal or wood, the open flame of a gas stove has been doing the job in recent years.
Once you get the perfectly charred skin of the brinjal, you can peel it off to get an aromatic pulp. And all that’s left is to mash it and cook with a Punjabi-style tadka. To try it yourself, here is a step-by-step recipe with handy tips to perfect North Indian style baingan bharta.
Wash the brinjal and pat dry. Next, make a few slits in it with a sharp knife and stuff it with garlic cloves. Brush the eggplant with a little oil and place it on an open flame or directly on a gas stove.
Turn the brinjal every now and then so that all sides of the vegetable are charred. Once the skin turns black and starts to peel off, turn off the flame.
Let the brinjal cool for about five minutes. Once it’s not too hot to handle, peel off the charred skin and transfer the pulp to a plate. Mash it with a spoon till you get a consistent mixture and set aside.
For the tadka, heat some mustard oil and saute cumin seeds and hing. Finely chop the onion and green chillies, and add to the kadhai. Once the onions are translucent, add ginger-garlic paste and finely chopped tomatoes.
Mix in all the spices: turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, and salt. Cook the masala till the tomatoes are soft and the oil starts to separate from the mixture.
Add the mashed baingal pulp and mix well. Cook for at least five to seven minutes till the pulp absorbs the spices. Towards the end, mix in garam masala.
Once aromatic, top the baingan bharta with chopped coriander leaves and give the sabzi a final mix.
Garnish with some more coriander leaves and serve the bharta hot with a roti and a side of raita, achaar or chutney.
1 If you have been avoiding bainganka bharta, the eggplant could be the reason. To make sure the bharta is not bitter, look for a large, round, and purple-coloured brinjal. Since the seeds in a brinjal can make it bitter, opt for lighter brinjals, as they usually have fewer seeds.
2 The key to making a smoky bharta is cooking on an open flame. If you don’t have a gas stove, you can roast the eggplant in an oven or air fryer, but the smoky taste will not be as strong.
3 Peeling the charred skin can be tough, as the brinjal will be very hot once it’s taken off the flame. To make the peeling process easy, place the roasted brinjal on a plate and cover it with a bowl. The trapped steam will loosen the skin, and you’ll be able to peel it off quickly.
4 Resist the urge to clean the brinjal by rinsing it with water. You clean it by dipping your fingers in a bowl of water, but if you wash the pulp, its smoky flavour will be reduced.
5 To get the authentic Punjabi dhaba-style taste, always use mustard oil, aka sarson ka tel, to make the tadka. Ensure the oil is smoking hot before adding the cumin seeds.
Yes, instead of a gas stove, you can roast or grill a brinjal in an air fryer or oven. As a safety precaution, prick the skin to avoid the eggplant from bursting.
You can skip mustard oil and use ghee or any other vegetable oil, but sarson ka tel gives you the authentic North Indian taste.
To make a kid-friendly version of baingan ka bharta, you can skip adding green chillies and reduce the amount of red chilli powder. You can mix in some cream and mashed potatoes for a milder taste.
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