The Humble Baigan

Baigan, brinjal, aubergine, eggplant, is a vegetable which comes in various names, shapes, colours, and sizes. Critics also often derisively refer to it as be-gun,  ie, that which is bereft of any redeemable quality.

This vegetable is native of the Indian sub-continent but is also grown and savoured in quite distant geographical regions. Naturally the recipe and techniques for cooking it varies widely. It can be had baked, deep fried, shallow fried, boiled, curried, pickled etc – though I have never heard of it being eaten raw.

The preferred choice in the Levant and Middle East is Baba Ghonoush / Muttable which is essentially baigan bharta made from baked large baigans which has been seasoned with salt, olive oil, and tahina. Another dish common in these regions is the pickled version using small sized baigan.

Ellen’s (Vijay Alexander’s wife) favorite dish for us vegetarians was an Afghani version shallow fried, with dahi, and served like a salad. And very, very delicious.

In North India baigan may be cooked into a curry along with either palak, सेम, मटर, सोआ, बरी, काला चना, nutri nuggets etc. etc. There are wide variations in the choice of condiments and spices which may be used. I am familiar with three kinds of masala for curried baigan. First is the most common - use chaunka of green chillies and a generous amount crushed garlic. Add baigan and tomatoes, haldi & namak and cover, along with whatever other ingredient one would like as mentioned in the first line of this paragraph. The second variation uses panch phoren. Cooking this version in cast iron kadahi gives it a dark colour and typical taste. The best are found at myriad breakfast joints in Banaras where it is served with kachoris. The last and best is cooked using sarson ka masala. It is heavenly, but unfortunately I am yet to master the recipe or the technique and can’t comment more.

The variety of baigan generally preferred in eastern UP and Bihar is known as bhanta. It is roundish and of deep purple colour. Apart from being cooked in a curry (eaten with puri, roti, or rice) it is also used for making bharta wherein it is baked whole directly in fire (best wood or goitha fire), skinned (since the outer skin gets burnt) but the inside flesh turns soft and tender. The flesh is mashed and seasoned with salt, raw mustard oil, crushed raw garlic, and thinly sliced green chillies.

There are variations in the making of baigan bharta. Some bake the baigan, others roast and grill it, while others actually cut and cook it. The range of condiments used also varies much. Some people prefer to add boiled mashed potatoes into the baigan bharta. I feel it destroys the pristine taste of the baigan.

Another version of savouring bhanta is by slicing it into quarter inch round slices and deep frying and commonly known as baigani. There are two versions of deep frying it. The first consists of marinating it in haldi and mircha powder along with ginger-garlic paste and salt for about an hour and then deep-frying the individual slices. The second involves coating the slices in a thick batter of besan and then deep frying. Vaishnavs and other vegetarians prefer that the batter be seasoned only with salt, haldi, and ajwain. Non-veg eaters and other gourmands prefer that the batter with seasoned with haldi, namak, jeera powder, dhania powder, mircha powder, ginger-garlic paste and maybe a pinch of garam masala too.

No self respecting Bengali bhoj is ever complete without begoon bhaja served as starters. But its been decades since I have been invited to any decent bhoj by a Bengali and how I am missing the taste.

Down in South India the baigan is smaller and has more seeds. Reason being (as per a conversation with Dr Manmohan Attavar of Indo American Hybrid Seeds more than 20 years ago) that growing conditions, especially ambient temperatures, is higher in South India. Poor man invested a lot of money in buying a large piece of land near Lucknow to set up a farm for developing seeds of fruits and vegetables typically grown in North India and I believe lost most of it. It’s a very sad story and I will not go into details since I am not very sure of it and it is of little concern to the matter in hand.

I have come across three variations of eating baigan in southern states. First, is the ubiquitous use in sambhar. Second is in Brinjal rice (vangi bhat). Third is a north Karnataka speciality curry, marinated and cooked in peanut & coconut paste and various local masalas and eaten with jowar rotis. It is simply divine. The baigan curry eaten in and around Hyderabad is similar to the North Karnatak version and generally eaten with biryani.

I have also had baigan - the white eggplant version - at a Chinese monastery in Hongkong. It was a completely different experience. Lightly cooked in a delicate gravy accompanied with rice - the sticky variety.

There have been some eminently forgettable encounters with the humble aubergine too. One was at a fairly fancy pizza joint in Milan. The day we landed in Italy also happened to be my better half’s birthday. Pizza being one of her favorite dishes we went to a wood fired pizza place highly recommended by the manager of the hotel we were staying in. We explained our requirement of a vegetarian pizza to the waiter who seemed to perfectly understand our requirements. The pizza came - very proudly served by the same waiter. Topped with brinjal and zucchini with a bare minimum of cheese. It was barely edible.

We had a similar encounter in Istanbul. We had been walking all morning and were tired and famished and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. We explained our requirement for some vegetarian food. The waiter beemed and assured us that he will arrange for something. It came - grilled pieces of various vegetables, including baigan. Very lightly grilled, nearly raw without any condiments. Offered to us for eating with salt, pepper, and a slice of lemon!

The variations in recipes is virtually infinite. Each has its die-hard fans. But the sad part is that this great vegetable is placed low down in the vegetables pecking order. I still remember taking a visiting cousin to a very fancy vegetarian restaurant in Vashi, where one of the dishes we ordered as a baigan dish – supposedly a signature dish of that restaurant. When we returned, she looked less than pleased. On being questioned, her reply left me totally confounded. Kya bhaiya – ghas-phus khila ke pooch rahein hain ki khana kaisa laga!