My stalwart editor (here) recently left the country for an extended period of time. My only hope of securing her insightful comments and careful edits during her six-month British boondoggle is to tempt her into service by posting a few of her favorite dishes. She practices a non-dogmatic form of quasi-vegetarianism (i.e., she occasionally becomes a pescetarian so as not to inconvenience her tablemates. And who can forget The Celebrated Christmas Holiday Organic Chicken Stock Accord of 2011). But simply said: She fancies vegetables. One of her most requested vegetarian dishes is Baigan Bharta or Baked Eggplant Purée with Seasoned Yogurt from Lord Krishna’s Cuisine – The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi [1987]. I’ve heard her squeak with joy upon learning that dinner included this delicious smoky, spicy amalgamation. Now with the bait selected, let me set my trap.
Devi writes that her Baigan Bharta
recipe is a Punjabi-style preparation. The recipe calls for cooking the baked
flesh of an eggplant with green chilies and spices until the pulp reduces to a
thick, savory mass. A literal translation of Baigan Bharta might read eggplant mush. (To my ear the word “mush”
sounds so unappealing (except when used as a command while skijoring). My
editor might take exception to this criticism and gently chide: “What's in a name? That which we call
a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet.” Perhaps, but Shakespeare was referring to a Montague and not to a mush.)
How you ready your eggplant pulp for its
mushing materially affects the dish’s final flavor. Authentic bhartas use vegetables baked in hot wood
ash. Devi writes that “[f]ew vegetables can stand exposure to open heat without
protective covers. Classic bhartas
are therefore made from those limited few: mature potatoes, yams or sweet
potatoes, winter squashes and eggplants.”
Ideally you would bake an eggplant for 45 minutes to 1 hour in a bed of
hot white wood ash; this imparts a lovely smoky flavor into the eggplant.
Recognizing that many cannot or choose not to
ash bake their vegetables, Devi provides other options for preparing eggplant
for a bharta. One of these methods—the
one I employ for convenience’ sake—involves oven-baking the eggplant on a baking
sheet for 45 minutes in a preheated 425°F oven.
Prior to baking, wash, dry and pierce the eggplant’s skin a handful of times
with a knife. To approximate a classic bharta’s
smoky flavor, Devi recommends rubbing the eggplant with butter and smoked salt
before placing it in the oven. The eggplant is ready when its inside is meltingly
soft.
- 1 medium-sized eggplant (1-1¼ pounds/455-570 g), freshly baked, roasted or broiled
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) ghee or vegetable oil
- 1-2 teaspoons (5-10 ml) hot green chilies, seeded and minced
- ¼ teaspoon (1ml) yellow asafetida powder (hing)*
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) each finally chopped fresh coriander and mint
- ⅔ cup (160 ml) plain yogurt or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) garam masala
* This amount applies only to yellow Cobra brand.
Reduce any other asafetida by three-fourths.
1. Slice the eggplant in
half lengthwise and carefully scoop out the pulp. Discard the skin and coarsely
chop the pulp.
2. Heat the ghee or oil in a large nonstick frying
pan over moderate heat. When it is hot but not smoking, add the green chilies,
asafetida and cumin seeds and fry until the cumin seeds darken. Add the
eggplant, ground coriander and salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until the
mixture is dry and thick, about 10 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the
heat and let cool to room temperature. Stir in the fresh herbs, yogurt or sour
cream and garam masala. (You may want
to add a sprinkle of smoked salt if you baked the eggplant in an electric or
gas oven.) Serve hot, at room temperature or chilled. Serves 4.
Some notes and thoughts. You can find asafetida powder and garam masala online or buy them in any Indian food market. If you decide to explore Indian cuisine, you’ll find these ingredients indispensible and worth adding to your spice collection. (I’ve looked for but have not found a local source for Cobra brand hing. Devi recommends dialing back the amount of hing when using other brands, but I don’t.)
Although I’ve made Devi’s Baigan Bharta with yogurt, more often
than not I leave it out; I prefer the intense flavor of the unadulterated pan-fried
eggplant. When I leave out the yogurt, my editor tops her Baigan Bharta with a cucumber and mint raita.
