Tip of the Day

"Use the water of boiled vegetables for gravy,doing so you get more flavour and you don't lose the nutrients which otherwise drain off with water.."

*Begun Bhaja (Eggplant Fry)

India is a land of diverse cultures.The diversity shows in the food preparations also.Each region and culture has their own food practices and food varieties.Today's recipe belongs to Bengali cuisine,which is characterized by the use of mustard oil and five basic spices, jeera, kalaunji, saunf, fenugreek and mustard seeds.

Begun Bhaja (Eggplant Fry)

Begun Bhaja is a bengali word,'Begun' means egg plant and 'bhaja' means fried. Few days back we had been to one of my friend Madhumita's place for dinner. She's a bengali and had made a wonderful Begun bhaja..........that was the first time I heard about this recipe. It was very delicious. I thought of making it at home,its always fun to learn and try out new recipes.

I have done some modifications in the traditional method of making begun bhaja.In the traditional method mustard oil is used and the eggplant is deep fried,but I used olive oil and have shallow fried the eggplant.


Ingredients
  • 1 medium Eggplant
  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • Semolina (Rava) 1 tbsp
  • Onion (1/4th) ,finely chopped (optional)
  • Turmeric powder 2 tsp
  • Red chili powder 2 tsp
  • Cumin-corainder powder (jeera-dhania powder) 2tsp
  • Salt to taste
* (If you want it to be a bit spicy you can add a little garam masala.)

Method
  • Wash and cut the eggplant horizontaly into round slices with a thickness of about 1/2 inch.
  • In a bowl mix turmeric powder,chili powder,cumin-corainder powder,semolina and salt.
  • Marinate the eggplant with the above mixed masala and keep it for about 15-20 minutes.
  • Take 1 tbsp of olive oil in a nonstick pan and saute the onions till they become golden brown.
  • Then add the marinated eggplant slices in the pan and put 1/2 tbsp oil around it.When the lower side becomes slight golden brown,flip the sides and put remaining 1/2 tbsp oil around.
  • Cook covered,occasionally flip the pieces till the pieces are soft.
  • Remove from the pan and serve with either rice or roti.


Serves 2-4




19 comments:

Shubha Ravikoti said...

Hey nice recipe... is this an evening snack???

Shubha Ravikoti said...

begun looks nice.... but is it snack or side dish??

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Hi

welcome to world of bloggers.

Nice to see you tasty recipes. Few are new to me.

-vanamala

Anonymous said...

Very nice! We had this at a friend's house years back and was looking for the recipe but did not know the dish name! Thanks to you I can try this now. Lovely blog you have going!

Cham said...

Looks like snack, but can be good with rice too :) I love Brinjal in amy form! Nice one

Shweta said...

This looks great! The version at our home is made with pan frying thin eggplant rounds and topping it with salt, red chile and amchur... Its great as a side to daal and rotis :)
I have eaten begun bhaja at my Bengali friend's house, they were made with the long eggplants, I loved that too! Will surely try your recipe :)

Unknown said...

perfect one..Guess it would be a great appetizer

Unknown said...

hetal begun bhaja look awesome u made it more better now i need to try ur recipe............2day i made ur besan chilla anand and the kids both liked it.....it was was easy fast and very delicious...............

Suganya said...

Hi Hetal.... First time to ur blog... u have a nice set of recipes... Eggplant fry looks YUM!... Love it...

Beyond Curries said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. This is my first time here too. I too like a lot of your recipes. Especially this one, because it's not deep fried and a healthy side dish. I will be trying it out very soon.

Aditi..............:) said...

Hey this recipe...we call it wangyache kaap...in marathi...my grandfather used to make it really well!!!
You reminded me of him...thanks...:)

Anonymous said...

hi the food was delicious specially sev tamato,s sabji. really enjoyed to have it.

@the_whisk_affair said...

OMG! This dish looks fantastic!

Vani said...

You have delicious recipes here! Will be back at leisure to explore all your recipes! :)

Naina said...

Hey thanks for stopping by my blog. I have not seen a baingan bhaja recipe like this one before. I usually just simply fry the eggplant. I will try this one out.

Anonymous said...

Hi Hetal/Isha,

You have a very nice blog coming up here ...
I liked the Begun Bhaja recipe - will try it out sometime!

Dori said...

Oh yummy, This looks great! My aunts use to fry up eggplant like this but without the spices... I would love to try it this way :)

Pallavi said...

This eggplant recipe looks interesting ! I will try it sometime too.. Nice Blog.. Thanks for visiting mine.. !

Aparna Inguva said...

Update:
Hey I did try the recipe yesterday night, came out good.I love the fact that eggpllnt tastes like eggplant and is not masked in a boat load of spices. (The eggplant drinks oil like crazy, can't imagine it being deep fried. three cheers to shallow fry)