Category: Main Course, Vegetarian Recipes
Cuisine: Indian, North Indian, Punjabi
Yields:
6 Servings
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 15 Mins
Cook Time:
30 Mins
Total Time:
45 Mins
Baingan Masala is a popular recipe from Northern India. It is made with baby eggplants or brinjals. There are many versions of this recipe and the eggplants are usually made with a stuffing of the spices. As tender baby eggplants are used, often they break while cooking so a tried and easy method is to bake the eggplants to perfection after it is sautéed in the masala gravy
Ingredients
- For Masala or Spice Paste
- For the Masala Gravy:
Instructions
- Rinse eggplants and then make two vertical cuts on the tops of each eggplant. Immerse them in salt water to avoid discolouration.
- Roast peanuts on a small frying pan, then add rest of the masala ingredients and sauté for a couple of minutes on low heat making sure not to burn the spices. Cool and then grind paste with a little water.
- Stuff eggplants with 3/4th of the ground masala paste, reserving the rest to make the gravy.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Heat an oven safe cooking pan with oil. Add mustard seeds. When the seeds crack, add the rest of the masala paste along with finely chopped tomatoes.
- Cook until the tomatoes turn a little mushy and then place the stuffed eggplants in the pan without overlapping. Let it cook for 2 minutes, then gently turn each eggplant and cook for another two minutes until the eggplants are a little brown on the edges.
- Now add in two cups of water and let it simmer on medium heat for about 5 minutes, then add in dried fenugreek. Switch off heat.
- Cover the pan with foil and transfer to pan to the oven. Bake about 30 to 40 minutes until the eggplants are fork tender.
- Transfer onto a serving platter and garnish with finely chopped cilantro. We like this with dish with Indian breads like roti or paratha but goes equally well with rice dishes too.