Brinjal in Curd (Doi Begun)

If you have any association with Bengali food, I am sure, you must have heard about Doi Begun, right? This item I learned from my mom. Mom probably leaned it from grand mom. That is how Bengali girls learn cooking.

This Bengali preparation contains Brinjal and curd as main ingredients. Its gravy should be thick and smooth. I prefer to add very little spices, so that it would not overpower the taste of Brinjal. Get the recipe here below. 

Ingredients for Doi Begun

Brinjal - 3
Curd - 3 tbsp 
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Seed - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Green Chili - 3-4 
Water
Oil
Salt
Sugar

Eggplant in Yoghurt (Doi Begun)

Eggplant in sweet gravy of white curd (Bengalis call it Doi Begun) is a lesser known dish cooked using minimal spices. As yoghurt gives the cooling effect, people prefer to have it in the summer. Many people in Bengal make it with a sweet gravy, but mine is light yet tangy.

Doi Begun is very easy to cook. The freshness of the ingredients would take you breath away. You can serve it with hot rice or chapatis. If you wish you can serve it chilled. For that you need to keep the Doi Begun in Refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

Required ingredients:

4 eggplants
200 gram of white curd
1 medium size onion sliced
1 tsp of turmeric powder
2 tsp of cumin seed
2 tsp of salt
1.5 tsp of each powder (coriander powder, chilli powder, garam masala)
Water for making gravy
Oil for cooking

Method followed:

1. Cut each eggplant into two equal size pieces. Spread turmeric powder and salt over those pieces and rub them well. Keep them aside for few minutes. 
2. Heat oil in a deep-bottom frying pan and fry those eggplant pieces properly and set aside. 
3. Now fry sliced onion in the same oil until it gets the color like golden brown. Once done, keep them aside. 
4. Set another pan on the oven and roast cumin seeds. Allow it to cool and them grind it into smooth powder.
5. Take yoghurt in a bowl and add roasted cumin powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt to yoghurt and beat finely. Add little water if you want to make it little thinner. Keep it aside for few minutes. 
6. Heat the pan and pour half of the diluted yoghurt. Once it starts boiling, add fried eggplants. Then pour rest of the yoghurt on the top. Turn off the heat. Spread a pinch of  garam masala on the top. 
7. If you want to serve it chilled, keep it in refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

For other eggplant recipes click here

Stuffed eggplant or Bharli Vangi

I am not sure, whether it is Malvani, Goan or konkani recipe. I first saw this recipe on a wonderful food blog. When I first made stuffed eggplant, I followed that recipe step by step. But I felt, I could make it in a different way. So in the second turn, I wanted change the recipe. Here goes my recipe below.

For this dish I used few dark purple colored baby eggplants. You can cook with big size eggplants as well. The spices used in the recipe, need to be coated on to each eggplants, and the taste would be the same, no matter what size of eggplants you are using.

Ingredients:

8 baby eggplants

1/2 cup of grated coconut

1/2 cup roasted and ground peanuts

1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste

2 large onion (chopped)

1 medium size chopped tomato (optional, I used)

1 tsp of each powder (turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, cumin powder, coriander powder)

2 tbsp mustard oil

Water

Salt

Method:

1. As the recipe name suggests, I hope you are done with slitting the eggplants. If not, slit them on 4 sides, but DON'T break them.

2. Take water and little bit salt in a bowl to soak them in salted water. After that keep it aside for 10-15 minutes.

3. You are ready with dry-roasted peanuts, right? Now roast grated coconut. Roast them till the color is becoming brown. DON'T roast peanuts and coconut together. Now set them aside separately for cooling down.

4. Take half of the chopped onion and garlic-ginger paste in the bowl of mixer grinder. Now check if the roasted coconut and peanut got cool or not. If them become cool, take them to the same bowl. And grind it to a smooth paste. If you need, you can add little water. But DON'T make it liquid.

5. Heat oil in your frying pan. Then add few amount of chopped onion to the hot oil. Keep frying them until they become transparent.

6. Add garam masala and cook for 2-3 minutes. Now add all other powders mentioned in the ingredients list and add tomato this time. Mix them well and cook for few minutes. Then remove from the heat and set aside for cooling down.

7. Now add half of the coconut-peanut paste to the paste mentioned in step no. 6.

8. Combine them well and stuff the mixture between eggplant. Did you find, the mixture is escaping from the eggplant? Don't worry; tie each eggplant back together with cotton thread.

9. Heat oil in the same frying pan. Add rest of the onion and fry it until light-brown. Add the eggplants to the pan carefully. Remove the cotton thread. And cover the pan with a lid.

10. Leave to cook for few minutes (10-15 minutes). But you have to turn them occasionally until cooked.

11. Serve the hot stuffed eggplants with roti or parantha.  

For other eggplant recipes click here.