Begun Pora (Roasted egg-plant)

My initial attempts to make this simple dish failed at the very first step. Here in US we have electric coil cooking ranges which doesn’t give off any flames. While they maybe safer they fail miserable to roast the egg-plant. However, we did get to test out the smoke alarm (again and yes they work ).

The moment I raised the possibility to my husband he instantly headed out to the balcony in the sub-zero cold with his propane camping stove. Something like below (amazon link). However, we bought it cheaper (around $30)

Sure enough soon we had successfully roasted the begun

Ingredients

1. 1 medium brinjal/ eggplant
2. 1 medium onion finely chopped
3. 2,3 green chilies finely chopped
4. A few spring cilantro/ coriander leaves finely chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. 2 tbsp. of mustard oil
7. A pinch of sugar

Procedure

Wash the eggplant and wipe it with a paper towel. Now cut one or two slits into it. Rub some oil all over it and hold it over a low open gas flame. Rotate the egg plants every few minutes. After few minutes you will see the juices coming out of it. Gradually the skin will darken and you will start getting a smoky flavor. It takes almost 20 - 30 mins to roast the eggplant. When the skin is totally charred remove from the flame. Allow it to cool. Then carefully remove the burnt skin.

Mash the eggplant and add chopped onion, green chilies, coriander leaves, salt and sugar to it. Drizzle one or two tsp. of mustard oil over it. Now your begun pora is ready to be served with hot phulka.

Note: If you really don't have an open flame gas stove you can roast  your eggplant in oven. It generally takes an hour to roast inside the oven.