Bhagare Baingan - Eggplant in a rich peanut sauce

I did not know that this dish was introduced to India by the Moghuls!  Ever time I blog I try and do a little research on the origin of the dish - and this dish has been around for a long time and I love it but I never thought of researching it until now. It is a famous side dish that is served with biriyani or pulao rice and/or breads like chappaties or naan.  This dish hails from Hyderabad and it arrived in India via the Silk Road, the recipe carried by Moghul traders all the way from Tashkent which is the capital of Uzbekistan.

I love egg plant in all forms so naturally I embraced this dish when I first tasted it and have been making it fairly regularly at home. It is best to use full, small eggplants for this dish - aesthetically that is what looks great. However, with the Christmas rush and all I had no time to go hunting for baby egg plants.  I just used a couple of the big ones, sliced thickly.

This dish has a flavourful, nutty, and rich base sauce that soaks up breads and rice nicely and blends with the eggplant in a beautiful union that makes the soul happy.

Ingredients:

250 grams eggplant, sliced

If using small eggplants, keep stem and calyx intact and cut the egg plant lengthwise into 4 or 6 sections. 

Oil to shallow fry egg plant

2 tablespoon peanuts (I used pre roasted unsalted peanuts)

2 tablespoon desiccated coconut

2 tablespoon sesame seeds

1/2  teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon coriander powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

1 onion, chopped

1 sprig curry leaves

1 to 2 tablespoon tamarind, soaked in 1/2 cup water

salt to taste

A few coriander leaves and sesame seeds for garnish

Method:

In a saucepan, dry roast peanuts and after a couple of minutes when the peanuts have started to toast, add the desiccated coconut. Lastly add the sesame seeds.  Toast till the coconut turns golden.

Blend the toasted ingredients with a little water and make it into a paste.

In the same pan, add oil and shallow fry the egg plant until it starts to blister and turn slightly gold.

Remove and set aside, reserve some oil.

Heat the reserved oil and add mustard seeds.  When they pop, add cumin seeds.  Add the onions next and when the onions start to go transparent, add the ginger garlic paste. Sauté well. Next add the ground paste and the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Mix well and sauté for a few minutes. Squeeze the tamarind and sieve it and add the sour tamarind water to the mix.  Cook for about 10 minutes. Test and add salt as needed. Add the fried egg plant.  Cook until the oil starts to float on top like shown in the picture below.

You can add more or less water depending on how thick you want the gravy to be.  

Garnish with a few chopped coriander leaves and sesame seeds.  Serve hot with rice, pulao or chappaties.

Hint:

The toasting and grinding is what takes up most of the time in this recipe. So, I often make a larger quantity of the toasted mix and after toasting and grinding it, I leave it in the freezer for another cooking session.