Thursday, August 18, 2011

Baingan not bartha

I make this quick fix baingan dish sometimes when I feel like having eggplant subzi.  It is not really super quick because you still  have to cut all the vegetables but it is faster than roasting baingan and peeling the skin etc.  Somehow I find this dish easier to make than the traditional baingan bartha.  No grinding, no powders.

This is how I make it.

I cut eggplant with the skin into small cubes.  It doesn't have to be super tiny - just reasonably small cubes.  I use any kind of eggplant I have at hand.  Even the long Japanese ones are fine.  To this I add 3 or 4 tomatoes (medium size pieces).  Lots of ginger.  2 or 3 bell papers chopped into small cubes.  Once I add these, I mix it up with salt and turmeric.  I pressure cook this with very little water.  Just enough to cook it all.

While it is cooking, I heat oil in a kadai and add a tiny bit of jeera and saute onions and keep it ready.  Then I add the pressure cooked vegetables and mix it with the onions and let it cook in the oil.  Once it is done, I add a lot of finely copped coriander and keep it covered in the steam for a while.  It tastes really good and it gets done pretty fast.

This dish is easy on days when I know we will be going to the park in the evening and I will not have much time to cook when I get back.  I just pressure cook the stuff and keep it ready.  When I get back I just have to saute onions and then I add this and fresh subzi is ready in minutes. If I chop the eggplant into small pieces, it gets cooked well and it tastes kind of like baingan bartha to me even if it is not the authentic one! If any of you try this recipe, do let me know how it turned out!

Added later: Oops - sorry - I forgot to add one more (key in my opinion) ingredient I add - green chillies.  I add 4 or 5 green chillies finely chopped to make it spicy.  I assume you would have spiced it up your own way though I did not mention it.


7 comments:

cantaloupes.amma (CA) said...

Noonie,

Interesting recipe... Eggplant is BP's fav veggie and my savior on days when I am in a rush. Rasam and eggplant curry it is on hectic days :)

Neera said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Neera said...

Noonoo. u r a saviour. Today I am tired after a long day and am yet to cook dinner (and here I am on the internet surfing blogs ;) but after all it helped ;) ) and I have the ingredients ..thank u so much for posting this today :)

Aparna said...

This sounds good, quick and easy! rare combination :) Will try this for sure sometime soon.

rrmom said...

yup. will try and tell you. I love short cut recipes esp on weekdays when its a mad rush to finish everything on time.

Aryan-Arjun said...

sounds interesting...need to try

noon said...

Hi CA - hope you like it. Remember the green chillies! (added later).

Neera - add a lil extra oil! :)

Aparna - Does Ads eat spicy stuff?

rrmom - Short cut recipes are good. In this one though I feel it mainly takes time to cut the veggies. If you have help for that, then this is a fast one.

Aryan - hope it comes out good! :)