Smoky Eggplant Bharta

Every choice coming in your way has its own consequences to follow!!! Blogging-Cooking-Photographing… Each of these has brought many pros n cons together :P

Yes, these are 3 top-most activities I’m so much passionate about… Have been blogging for more than 3 years now! Cooking is something I do ‘coz I enjoy n never ‘coz I have to! Playing with spices/herbs/flours/veggies make me stronger to step ahead in this culinary world. And of course, I have been learning food-photography each single day… Wait wait wait, that’s all about pros only!!!

Let me pen down a bunch of cons too:

• More time I spend in kitchen experimenting various dishes, less I get to go out n enjoy the sunshine (when it’s sunny out here)!
• When I find myself blogging or even doodling the post on paper, I get to see hubby enjoying his action movies or discovery channel :P
• Transferring food to serving plates/bowls, dazzling up with garnishing elements, setting up the props on the board and clicking from various angles make hubby almost scream with hunger ;)
• And I shouldn’t miss to add kitchen disasters (it hardly happens though)! Whenever I find myself in dilemma whether to serve or not, I get nervous… Some terrible disasters make me almost-cry too :P And rather than rectifying the problem there n then, we end up with a take-away from near-by restaurant :(

That’s funny, isn’t it?

After a few unsuccessful experiments of making myself like eggplant, finally I’m proudly saying… I love it this way! :P ‘Smoky Eggplant Bharta’ – A dish pretty much similar to my hubby’s recipe ‘Kathiyawadi Olo‘, with a few changes to suit my taste-buds!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 Eggplant, medium
6 Spring Onion Whites, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Chopped Tomato
½ cup Spring onion, greens
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder
1 tsp Red Chilly Powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
Salt, to taste
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tbsp Cooking Oil
1 tbsp Lemon Juice

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Apply oil over eggplant and cut it in 4 pieces. Brush with oil and a pinch of salt.
2. Arrange them on a baking tray and roast in oven for around 20 mins on 200 degrees and take them out.
3. Roughly mash it using potato-masher (keep their skin on).
4. Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan and add cumin seeds in it.
5. Once it stops crackling, add garlic and spring onions into it. Saute it until onions are soft.
6. Add all remaining ingredients along with spices in it. Mix everything well.
7. Cook it uncovered for approx 4-5 mins.
8. Garnish with chopped spring onion greens and serve hot with any flat-bread!

SJ’s NOTE:

• To serve this as a dip with pita slices, remove the skin of oven-roasted eggplant and finely mash it.
• I oven-roasted eggplant as I don’t want much water to be release from inside. It’s a bit dry bharta!!!