Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Fire in the house

Stuffed brinjal
Wangi aka brinjal aka aubergine aka eggplant.

When I tasted the bharleli wangi (stuffed brinjal) my neighbour brought over the other day, I immediately wanted the recipe. She was happy to share it, so I went over on Monday and watched over her shoulder and took notes as she made some. She even sent me back with some of her special Kolhapuri masala.

Stuffed brinjal
It's the deeper red masala on the top of the photo. I added way more peanuts than shown in this photo.

Turns out that once each year, they visit their preferred masala shop in the old part of the city and pick up ingredients for a batch of masala which they then grind and store for the entire year. This year they made 3 kilograms! The masala includes corriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, onions seeds, cloves, and tens of other spices, giving it a rich, complex flavour.

Stuffed brinjal

So I made some bharleli wangi last night. And...it was absolutely delicious but way too spicy. About ten times too spicy! Seriously. I guess I didn't realise the full potential of the special masala.

Stuffed brinjal
So spicy, I almost forgot to take a picture once it was ready. Left overs.

But I still have some unused masala and I plan to make it again one of these days. My neighbour didn't specify any measures or proportions, so it's just a list of ingredients, really. To help me remember:

Finely chopped onions
Garlic
Ginger
Cumin seeds
Salt
Kolhapuri masala
Turmeric powder
Roasted+ coarsely ground peanuts
Roasted+ground cashew nuts

Mix the above ingredients together. Wash brinjal, cut tip of stalk keeping base intact. Score brinjal, cutting almost all the way to the stalk. Saving some of the mix for later, stuff spice mix into each brinjal carefully.

Heat oil, throw in some cumin seeds, sugar (a pinch, for colour), add remaining mix, stuffed brinjal, water. Cook. Add chopped fresh corriander. Serve.

Hopefully take two will be significantly less fiery!

1 comment:

  1. Delicious! I am going to try this recipe but with a mixture of green and purple wangis. The green I cooked with for the first time yesterday. I tried it in sambar and oddly enough it reminded me of green tomatoes. Kolhapuri masala from the packet might not compare but this shall not deter me from trying to make this scrumptious looking bharleli wangi!!

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