Hyderabadi Baghare Baingan

Hyderabadi baghare baingan is unique in its taste made with freshly roasted spices, peanuts, coconut which are stuffed in the baby eggplants. Baghar means tempering or tadka and baingan is eggplant, hence the name loosely means 'Tempered Eggplants'.The dish was made to be served in royal court of Nizams of Hyderabad and now when there is no longer royalty in our country this dish is served in parties, gatherings and special occasions.

The dish is normally served with biryani but it tastes equally good with roti and paratha. Usually this dish is prepared by deep frying slit brinjals in hot oil but my husband was really not in a mood to eat anything so oily so I made it this way.

Ingredients:

For the stuffing and gravy:

Onion- 1 Big (Sliced thin)

Garlic- 2 Cloves (Chopped finely)

Ginger- 1 inch piece

Peanuts- 2 or 3 tbsp

White Sesame Seeds- 2 tbsp

Dessicated Coconut - 2 tbsp

Cumin- 1 tsp

Khus Khus( Poppy Seeds)- 2 tsp

Fenugreek Seeds- 1/2 tsp

Coriander Seeds- 1 tsp

To grind along with the stuffing mix:

Tamarind Paste- 2 tbsp

Red Chilli- 2

Turmeric- 1/2 tsp

Salt- According to taste

For Tempering:

Mustard Seeds- 1 tsp

Curry Leaves- 10- 12 leaves

Dry Red Chillies- 2

Purple Baby Brinjals- 10 or 12

Oil- 3 tbsp

Procedure:

• Start by dry roasting onions, ginger and garlic for few minutes till they start releasing little moisture.
• Follow by adding other ingredients of the stuffing mix and dry roast everything together for 7-10 mins till aroma of the roasted spices begin to arise.

The roasted mix will look like this.

• Grind this mixture along with tamarind paste, red chillies, turmeric and salt.

The resultant paste looks like this.

• Wash and dry the eggplants and make a '+'incision from the base to the top of each eggplant making sure that the stem remains intact.
• Stuff the ground paste in each eggplant. Keep remaining paste to be added as a gravy.
• Heat oil in a kadhai/wok and add mustard seed, red chillies and curry leaves and when they start spluttering place each eggplant in the wok and cook for sometime then add the remaining gravy paste and salt and about 2 cups of water and cook covered for some time in medium flame.
• Keep stirring in between as the gravy thickens and start to settle at the bottom.
• Cook till the eggplants are fully cooked through and all the flavours blend well.

Serve hot.