Bagara Baingan is a traditional recipe from Hyderabadi cuisine. Eggplant or small brinjal are stuffed with a delicious, creamy and spicy paste made with various seeds and a mix of spice powders.
I am not a fan of rich curries, but there are few that I just can't resist. I do not cook these types of curries very often, but whenever I do I make sure that they taste so good that it can make me forget about the extra calories. Hyderabadi Baghare baingan is one of such curry.
Watch Video Recipe of How to Make Bagara Baingain
Many people hate eggplant or brinjal { I hated it as a child} but now I say if you hate eggplant/brinjal you probably don't know how to cook it right. Once you know the spice profile that works best with eggplant, you can transform this humble veggie into a delightful dish. Enough with my veggie love, let's talk about how to make this delicious Hyderabadi bagara baingan recipe.
Traditionally the small eggplants are deep fried and then stuffed with spicy curry paste and cooked in a creamy gravy. But I have tried to cook it by sauteing and that works so much better, because eggplants absorb too much oil when you deep fry them, whereas sauteing involves very less oil and yields almost same crispy skin but so much less oil and hence much less guilt.
The best thing about cooking with eggplants is the flesh absorbs flavors like a sponge and becomes like a beautiful canvas which you can paint with various flavor profiles. Another big plus of this curry is this is loved by vegetarians, non-vegetarians, and even works so beautifully if you are a vegan.
There is a long list of spices required for cooking this rich curry, but I will say don't let it intimidate you from trying this wonderful recipe. The gravy is the most important part, so if you get that right and spice here and there does not matter too much, still I recommend to follow the exact recipe and ratio of spices used.
Baghare baingan is kind of curry that satisfies the cravings of spicy rich curry in a delicious way, you just can't beat the texture that falls somewhere in the range of silky creaminess and fiery flavor with the tang of tamarind juice, and sweetness of coconut milk. Drooling yet ? 😀 . Let's get cooking...
📖 Recipe
Hydrabadi Baghare Baingan Recipe | Vegan and Glutenfree Indian Recipe
Print Pin RateIngredients
- 250 g Eggplant brinjal Baby / small
- 2 tablespoon peanuts Roasted and skinned
- 2 tablespoon Sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoon poppy seeds ( khas khas)
- 2 tablespoon coconut Desiccated
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder .
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon ginger Grated
- 2 green chilli
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 pinch asafoetida / Heeng
- ½ Turmeric tea powder spoon.
- 1 tamarind lemon paste ball size
- to taste salt
- ¼ teaspoon red chilli kashmiri powder
- ½ jaggery tea spoon.
- coriander leaves for garnish
Instructions
- Wash and pat dry all the eggplants.
- Now Slit the eggplant in such a way to make one incision from the base side towards stem, but in such a way that from stem side it is still attached to stem. Similarly make another incision from other side so that it is divided into four parts which are still attached to stem. Likewise slit all eggplants
- In a pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil and cook the eggplants in this oil till the flesh goes little limp and skin starts to crisp up.
- Remove the eggplants from pan and place on a kitchen towel/paper napkin.
- In another pan dry roast coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds and poppy seeds, dry roast for 5-6 minutes till they become fragrant.
- Transfer this toasted mix to a blender, add 2-3 tablespoon of water and blend it to a fine paste.
- Now take the same pan in which you cooked eggplant and add one more tablespoon of oil. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds and let them sizzle.
- Add chopped green chilli, grated ginger, chopped onions and cook till they are translucent.
- Now add the dry spices, cumin powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder, turmeric. Also add salt to taste.
- Add around ½ of water and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add half the quantity of coconut-peanut and poppy seed paste to the pan. and stuff half the paste into the slits you have made in baby brinjals.
- Cook the paste for 5-6 minutes on low heat, add one or two tablespoon of water if you feel the paste might stick to bottom of the pan.
- Now add the fried and stuffed eggplants to the gravy and mix. Add 2 cups of water, Cover and cook on low flame for 15-20 minutes.Keep stirring it in between.
- Finally add jaggery and tamarind paste and stir it well. Top with fresh coriander leaves and serve the delicious baghare baingan with rice or flat breads.
Neena
Recipe steps don’t match video with respect to stuffing eggplant