Pat's Baingan Bharta

Winter brings the most luscious, lightweight yet firm aubergines blushing a radiant purple on the market stalls. With tender peas and garlic greens also making an appearance, it is the right time to cook-up a bharta!

Ingredients

1. 1 large, firm, light, non-wormy aubergine (while looking for larva, check for tell-tale perforations on the green stalk as well) with a long enough stalk (so that you can hold it over the fire).
2. 3 large, firm, red tomatoes (Remember Penelope Cruz in Woman on Top?).
3. 3 medium red Indian onions.
4. Handful of fresh shelled peas.
5. A bunch of clean garlic greens.
6. 10 pods of large fresh peeled garlic.
7. 4 firm and hot green chillies (all wimps can choose less, I suppose).
8. Quarter inch piece of fresh, mature ginger (the young, pink variety has a fishy taste).
9. 4 tablespoons of mustard oil (choose Engine or Mastan for the best results).
10. A large bunch of clean, dark green and fresh coriander stalks and leaves
11. Quarter lemon if the tomatoes don't lend enough tartness.

Get Going

1. Roast the aubergine (after having cleaned it and checked it thoroughly for larva) over a gas flame. Start from the end and slowly work your way up to the stalk. About five minutes into the roasting, the aubergine will start becoming limp and drooling juices. At this stage you may want to support the end of the damned thing with a steel implement of sorts - this will allow you to roast the veggie nicely. Don't mind the puffs of steam that will come out of sudden cracks to the skin of the eggplant. Once the top part is also uniformly cooked (about 10-12 odd minutes), rest the roasted aubergine on a plate and incline the plate gently so that the juices run clear. I like putting the juices back in the bharta. Let it stand for now; go back to the rest of the veggies.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the top ugly centre, chop the nice parts into 1 cm cubes. For this to happen, your knife needs to be sharp. Retain the juices that run from the cutting and put them in along with the rest of the tomatoes.
3. Chop the onions into small pieces - the way you would do to onions in bhelpuri.
4. Chop the garlic greens and the garlic into as tiny bits as you can.
5. Skin and chop the ginger as fine as well.
6. Chop the Coriander stalks fine; keep them separately from the finely chopped coriander leaves. Stalks go into the cooking, the leaves are for the garnish.
7. Break the chillies into halves.
8. By this time the aubergines would have cooled enough for you to handle it. Remove the burnt skin by picking chunks of it with your fingers. Leaving some in lends a nice smoky flavour. With most of the burnt skin off, caress the now naked and fleshy lump from the top like you would a lock of tress. A rope of tender meat will come away and reveal clusters of seeds. If you think they are a bother, remove as many as you can. If the aubergine is young, the seeds will be soft. Some people find the seeds itchy while chewing. Do this 'combing' to the rest of the aubergine. Once you have deseeded, wrench the stalk off to leave just the fresh, smoky, trembling flesh.
9. Heat up a kadhai / wok with 1.5 tablespoons of mustard oil. Let it smoke, then cool it and when you are sure it is cool enough to not burn what you put in it, put in half the garlic, half the ginger and two pieces of chillies. Stir for 10 seconds; put in half the onions and all of the peas. Stir till onions are translucent. Put in all the tomatoes. Stir till tender. Check if its becoming dry, if it is, add some oil. There should be a nice sheen over the cook-up. Keep stirring till the tomatoes are nicely mushy. Add the coriander stalks and stir some more till you are convinced that the tomatoes and onions are well cooked.
10. If you do not like the starkness of this dish, add some turmeric. I know of itchy-fingered Moms who add turmeric no matter what. Desist, if you can, else its OK to succumb by a pinchful of the yellow powder.
11. Now assuming you are ready to eat, continue with the rest of the steps. Else, switch off the gas and wait till you are famished.
12. If you are restarting, then wait till the cooked mess is hot and sizzling. Add the remaining onions, garlic, ginger and chillies. Add the roasted baingan. Switch off the gas. Now it is all about mixing.
13. Tease the aubergine flesh into the rest of the masala. The raw onions, garlic and ginger will sweat a little in the heat and provide a wonderful crunchy texture. Work in the rest of the raw mustard oil. Add the chopped coriander. Serve with fulka.

The traditional way is to cook the aubergine in the kadhai. I find that cooking it further makes the aubergine lose the wonderful smokiness and texture. Adding the raw onions, garlic and ginger brings a touch of adventure and un-tamedness to this rough but satisfying dish.