Eggplant Salad in Yogurt- "Bharit in Dahi"

This is an absolutely delicious dish. While my mom made the 'baba ghanoush' style eggplant salad quite often, the version with yogurt was a rare occurence. I really liked it but I must not have mentioned it because she was under the impression that I didn't really care for it, for the longest time. So, this recipe is definitely a reminder to appreciate good food when I eat it. All of us make dishes we perceive are well received by our family and friends. So, next time you eat something that you really appreciate, let the cook know. That is the best way to make sure that you get to eat what you like more frequently.

Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 red onion, finely diced (about a cup)
cilantro, finely chopped (about 1/2 a cup)
1 tsp corriander powder
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, slit (to taste)
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 cup yogurt

Method
Roast the eggplant till the skin is charred. Then peel the skin off the eggplant. Finely dice the roasted eggplant. To this add the onions, cilantro and corriander powder and mix well. In a small pan, heat the oil. To this add the cumin and mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add the garlic and cook for a minute. Do not let it burn. Then add the green chillies and turmeric. Pour this over the eggplant and mix well. When the eggplant reaches room temperature, add yogurt and mix well. Then add the sugar and salt. Enjoy at room temperature or cold.

Tips
If you have run out of garlic, use a pinch of asafoetida/hing instead. If you use both the ingredients together, the two ingredients tend to cancel out each others fragrance.  If you do not like to eat garlic, then you can just add garlic cloves to the oil, let them cook through and then remove them at the stage when they start browning. The oil will have a nice garlic flavor. If you do not have a "gas" lit stove and use a coil stove, then broil the eggplant. It is much faster than baking and you can get a nice charred outside.

Serve is as a side salad with your meal. It can also be eaten with chapati/roti or use as a dip to eat with pita chips.

Bharli Vangi- Stuffed Eggplant

This is a very "rich" eggplant preparation. It has groundnut and coconut along with sesame seeds. I am not sure how the "traditional" version is prepared, however my version is much quicker and just as tasty if not tastier. This is a wonderfully quick way to prepare a recipe which has several steps traditionally. This is also a very easy vegetable preparation to scale up. I had made this preparation with eighty eggplants for my daughter's first birthday bash. Everyone enjoyed it a lot and several folks had asked me for the recipe. So albeit quite late, it's better than never; I finally got the required photos and am now able to post the recipe. Hope you enjoy making it as much as I do.

Eggplant is also known as brinjal and I may use these interchangeably in the following recipe.

Ingredients
1 red onion large, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup peanuts/groundnut, ground coarsely (do not grind it till the texture is pasty)
1/2 cup sesame, roasted lightly and ground
1/2 cup grated coconut, fresh or dry
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
red chilli powder to taste
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp goda masala
3 tbsp oil
8-10 small eggplants/brinjals (called Indian eggplants in the US)
2-3 cups of water with about 1 tsp salt dissolved in it
2-3 tbsp water, if needed

Method
Make two perpendicular slits in the brinjal/eggplant, from the side opposite to the stem. Do not cut it till the pieces separate. After the cuts, the eggplant should have four pieces and a "+" shape cut. As you cut the brinjal, put it into the salt water. This will prevent oxidation of the cut surface and help retain the color.  If the exposed surface of the brinjal oxidises, it will turn brown. In a mixing bowl, mix together the chopped onion, peanut powder, sesame seed powder, coconut, goda masala, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, salt and sugar. Mix the ingredients together. Then, stuff each of the cut eggplants with this mixture. You may be have some left over mixture, which will form the gravy. Then heat the oil in a pan broad enough to hold all the brinjals in one layer. Add each brinjal to the oil and let it cook. Add the remaining stuffing mixture to the pan. Let the brinjals and the onion cook down. Stir gently and cover the pan. After the raw smell of the onion and garlic goes away, if needed add some water to create the gravy. Adjust the amount of water needed, by adding a little at a time. This preparation is more towards the dry side and does not have a watery gravy. Serve hot with chapati or rice.

Tips
Substitute goda masala with the same quantity of of dhana-jeera powder mixture. Do not add water to form the gravy before the onions, garlic and brinjal gett fried well in the oil and are no longer raw, else they will not taste good. The water should be added at the end of the cooking process. You may need to adjust the initial amount of oil, based on the volume of brinjals and the stuffing mixture. If you need to add more oil after you have already added all the ingredients, then heat the oil in another pan and add it to the preparation.

Vangi Bhaat - (Spicy Eggplant Rice) in a Jiffy

This is my quick version of Vangi Bhaat. Now, this is a dish I had never eaten in India and I am not very sure what the authentic version tastes like. However, I can state that the substitute presented here is definitely very tasty and a quick preparation too. The way this recipe was cooked up was that I had bought an eggplant and was finding it difficult to decide on a preparation method. Finally, my husband suggested Vangi bhaath. He has eaten the authentic version of vangi bhaat, but he was not sure of how its prepared and wasn't much help when it came to the recipe. So, of course I turned to the internet. All the recipes I found had instructions to make the required masala from the basic ingredients. Well, it was nearing lunch time and I had nothing to show for my efforts so far, so I decided to wing it. And we were both very happy with the end result.

Definitely a good recipe to have up your sleeve when you need to prepare a meal in a jiffy.

Ingredients

1 Large eggplant/ 4-5 small eggplants - sliced into strips.
1/8 tsp mustard
1/8 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1/2 tsp split urad daal (peeled)
pinch of asafoetida
couple of pinches of turmeric powder
1 tbsp oil
green chillies to taste - chopped
5-6 curry leaves
1 tsp sambar masala
1 tsp rasam masala
1/2 tsp tamarind paste (can be varied to taste)
salt to taste
2 cups cooked rice

Method
Heat the oil. To this add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once they being to crackle, add the hing/asafoetida, urad daal and curry leaves. Add the turmeric powder and then the eggplant strips. Add a little salt at this time. It will help with the cooking process. Once the eggplant is cooked and softened, add the masalas and tamarind paste. Cook for a couple of minutes. Finally add the rice and mix it well with the cooked eggplant mixture. Adjust the seasoning. Serve hot along with some yogurt.

Tips
It doesn't really matter what kind of eggplant you use for this recipe. Also, you can cut it into cubes instead of strips, but it will take longer for the cubes to cook. I used readymade store bought masalas. You can increase the masala proportions to make it spicier.