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Friends, I was at my parents house for the last couple of weeks, a little under the weather and getting some me time. Including lots of family time with them. Mom made sure she made some of my absolute favourite dishes during the visit, and I got lots of food photography done during the process. He He. Mamma and I always had this kinda duo thing going on before I got married. We’d create recipes, she’d help me with developing new ones, taste testing etc. And then we’d do our photography sessions. Planning and executing. I mean, quite a few times she’d have to be the helper, and I did feel bad about it. But then I realized she enjoyed being a part of all of it. Our days were spent talking and planning about our new recipe and creating lots of content, and you’ll get to see lots of it on the blog in the future.
The recipe that I am talking about today is one such recipe. Mamma made it, I did the photography. And it is a family recipe. I have never eaten it anywhere else. So I think it is probably just made this particular way in my family. It is one of my absolute favourites. A very simple recipe but loaded with flavours.
Aloo baingan (eggplant and potato) is probably made in every desi (South Asian) household, and everyone has their own recipe. Some are traditional to their family and some to a particular community, but all are mouth wateringly delicious. Aloo baingan made on my paternal side is completely different to the one made on my maternal side and my in-laws. So, I decided to have a conversation with Mamma about this particular recipe - you can listen to the conversation here along with the audio version of this recipe.
Ingredients
½ kg round eggplants - cut in 16 pieces (quartered - then quarters cut into further 4s)
½ kg potatoes - cut like eggplants
2.5 kg tomatoes
Salt to taste
100 g red button chillies
3-4 green chillies
Method
Roughly cut tomatoes in quarters and put them in a pot to cook - no oil
Cover to create steam so that tomatoes cook faster
While tomatoes are in the sauna, cut the eggplants & potatoes length wise in 4 pieces, and further cut those width wise into 4s, but make sure you cut them right before frying. Cut up eggplant oxidises in minutes and results in a bitter tasting vegetable!
Deep fry these till golden-ish coloured in well heated oil. Fyi, eggplants are super thirsty vegetables if the oil is not heated well they will drink it up super fast!
Deep fry potatoes till they are nice and golden
Now, comes the slightly tricky part - technically the tricky part is over. It was frying the eggplants ( tee hee)
Yeah, so as I was saying - deep fry the button chillies till they turn crisp. These will fry up real fast and start darkening in colour. Be sure not to over cook them because they’ll just become bitter.
Fry the green chillies also
Once the red chillies are cool enough to handle crush them in a mortar & pestle aka hawan dasta, sill batta, or just use a rolling pin aka bailan. Don’t use a chopper simply because we do not want to attain a powder consistency.
While you’re doing all of the above activities, keep checking on the tomatoes - once a these are cooked about 75%, mix in all the fried vegetables and spices. Add salt to taste and about ¼ cup of oil that you used to fry everything in. Leave it covered on low heat for a few minutes so that everything combines well. Turn off the heat, serve this with boiled rice!
Don’t forget to tell me how it turned out and whether you liked it or not!
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