Saturday, July 26, 2008

Baingan..baghare waali!

I could call this one of my regional favourites. Baghara Baingan is a dish every Hyderabadi will identify with, and love. I tried it with great hestitation. You see, am not an 'all-types-of-baingan' fan. I like baingan in bharta, or in fries :P or in Eggplant Parmesan or in my granny's Vaangibaath. When I first tried the notorious Hyderabadi Biryani with Mirchi Ka Salan, I drooled. I love rice, I love chillies. I just did not need anything else. I ate Hyderabadi food like this only after I started working in Hyderabad. Otherwise, during hostel days, we'd go out to eat what our moms cooked in their kitchens. Atleast, something resembling that. My house has never seen/eaten Baghara Baingan and I was hesitant to try it.

Our office was known to provide amazing food and every Friday, it was Biryani day. Yay! I loved Friday for more than the idea of weekend coming close :) One day, the caterers did not make Mirchi Ka Salan, but instead made Baghara Baingan. I was wild. But I still ate it :D You see, am not known to grudge food all that much! And then it was helping after helping of only this curry! I never once thought of trying it until I bought Baingan from the Farmer's Market to make Undhiyu. Since I did not have all the Undhiyu ingredients (I'm ALWAYS like this. I get excited, buy the main ingredient, and forget the rest!) and the baingan or the brinjal or the eggplant or the aubergine (I just realized we have non-Hindi readers!) was rotting and A was complaining, I decided to make Baghara Baingan. I scanned the Food Blog Search for some ideas since I did not know what went to it, apart from the brinjals :D Finally, I chanced upon Asha's recipe for Baghara Baingan and then I went on to add some other stuff randomly that I my hands touched in the fridge. And this is how it looked :) We had it with rice and not biryani. It still was as good as ever and rekindled culinary memories of Hyderabad. Sigh.


While I did use Asha's recipe for making this dish, I added 1/2 cup peanuts and 1/4 cup of sour cream. I added the peanuts because I've noticed that a lot of Andhra dishes add peanuts. Sour cream, I added, because I loooooooove sour cream and just wanted to use it :P At the end, just before taking it off the gas, I added a dollop of ghee, and that just made the dish perfect. The aromas tantalizing, the taste buds tingling, A and I stuffed ourselves that night :)

25 comments:

sra said...

Now, baghara baingan and sour cream is an unholy combination! :-D It would have really kicked up the taste by several notches.
I love mirchi ka salan too!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A delicious looking dish! Wonderful!

Cheers,

Rosa

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

That's an interesting variation to Bhagare Baingan.
This would qualify for "fusion" cooking, I think.:)

amna said...

i normally don't like peanut based gravies (or satays which are the rage in Singapore), but adding sour cream is a superb idea :D

Deepthi Shankar said...

thatz a yummy dish .. i came across this recipe 2 days ago in a magazine n had made a mental note of it .. got to try it now .. looks good ..

delhibelle said...

Baghara baingan is a long forgotten favourite of mine..your yummy pics have revived the memories, gotta make it and soon!

notyet100 said...

andhra recipes hve their own authentic taste,..nd always taste delicious,..:-),.nice clicktoo

Indian Khana said...

Baghara baigan looks so wonderful....love the pic..

Shreya said...

looks really great..:-) very tempting pic!

Jayashree said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog.
Love your header.....and adding sour cream to baingan seems like a great idea.....

Cham said...

Creamy baigan with peanut :) U gave an Amer-Indian touch to those purple beauties :) Sound tasty with plain rice!

Ranjani said...

Nice:)

tigerfish said...

NOw I would like Friday even more if it is Briyani Day! Yummy day! :D

Vani said...

Baghara baingan looks delicious! Hated baingan as a kid but now, it's one of my favorites! :) And a happy belated birthday to A!

Kumudha said...

Baghara baingan looks so tasty. I love to eat this yummy brinjal dish with rotis.

Unknown said...

baingan subji looks really delicious..spicy..mm am drooling now

ST said...

Baghara baigan looks so wonderful and delicious....I am drooling over pics....

Sum Raj said...

looks wonderful and delicious...this was the curry i had sterday...

bha said...

I hate baingan, brinjal, aubergine and the likes......actually in many maharashtrian baingan dishes they add peanuts....it seems like baingan and peanuts are made for each other......I have lived in Atlanta for a short while....nice place and have visited Pensacola, loved it

Laavanya said...

The gravy looks so thick and good - what a yummy dinner that makes.

TheCooker said...

sour cream and a dollop of ghee.
it had to taste as good as it looks!!

Cakelaw said...

All I can say is YUM!

Cynthia said...

Your baigan dish looks simply delicious. Unfortunately, the only way I can eat bigan is if it is fire-roasted.

Shreya said...

A_and_N, I have tagged you with the Booky MeMe!

Lakshmi said...

now..tat sour cream idea is a new to me nevertheless the dish looks yumm..