just the recipe: eggplant mash, or baingan bharta
no long story about how my favorite aunt made this when i was a kid
stuff 1 big eggplant 3tbsp neutral high smoke-point oil 1 medium onion 2 medium tomatoes 1 inch ginger 1/2 tsp mild smoked paprika salt 1 lime, or apple cider vinegar 1/2 bunch cilantro 1/2 tsp garam masala tools it is super important to have a gas burner for this. Once you know what you're doing and what you're looking for, you can make this with a gas broiler or on the grill, but it will be more frustrating. It's way less yummy if you just have an oven (no burner or broiler or grill). you'll also need a big wide pan, a knife and cutting board. prep chop the onion pretty small dice the tomatoes peel the ginger (use a spoon!) and mince it finely chop cilantro, including a fair amount of stems wash and dry the eggplant what do 1. Turn your gas burner on and then place the eggplant directly on the flame. Yes! That's right! Just put it on the metal grate thingy above the burner head. I know it sounds weird but do it. 2. Turn the eggplant every once in a while so that the skin gets blackened and crinkly and crispy all over. It will burst in places and leak eggplant juices all over your burner. This is just fine! Accept it as a reasonable price, the cost of doing business, because business is good. Clean it later. The flesh of the eggplant should feel soft, while the skin should feel like burned paper. This will take many minutes depending on the size of the eggplant and how strong your burner is. 3. Take the eggplant off the flame and put it on a plate. It will continue leaking juices and that's fine. Let it cool. 4. Once cool enough to handle ("The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts"), use your hands to remove all the blackened skin. Use a knife or your hands to very roughly break the flesh into chunks the size of your thumb. 5. Heat oil in a pan. Once shimmering, dump in the onions. Saute until transparent, then add the ginger. Saute until the ginger is sizzling and you can smell a nice gingery aroma, then add tomatoes and paprika. Cook until tomatoes start softening but not much longer: you want them to retain some identity and bright red color. A classic cue here is to look for little bits of oil to seep out the sides of the mass of tomato and onion, and sizzle. 6. Add the chunked eggplant and its juices. Use your spatula to break up large pieces, mash stuff and mix everything together. There's a big range of reasonable texture; you don't want a smooth puree but you also don't want large chunks of eggplant because their insides will not be flavored with the aromatics. 7. Cook for at least a few more minutes, and continue until all the eggplant bits are softened: while the outer bits of eggplant probably got fully cooked during the flame-roasting step, the insides might still have been a little raw. Ideally not! But it happens, and this is the time to fix that. 8. Turn the heat off. Salt and acid until it's yummy. Mix in the chopped cilantro. Sprinkle the garam masala over the whole thing. why this works The high direct heat of flame on skin produces a bunch of roasty aromas and flavors. Those flavors go into the flesh, and to some degree the flesh also cooks at very high heat. That's the main story of this recipe. Everything else is there to support that story, and you've seen it in many other recipes: aromatics sauteed in hot fat, a bit of smoked paprika for the heat and flavor, salt and acid to season, cilantro at the end for a bit of herby freshness, and a final hit of garam masala for complex toasty flavor. The raw garam masala powder at the end has a fresh sharpness that is often lost when spices are mixed into the bulk and cooked. variations If you and your guests can handle it, use some chopped green chili peppers, like serrano or bird's eye peppers. Add them with the tomatoes. De-seed them if you must. You could use turmeric. I didn't in this particular written recipe, but I often have in real life. Add it with the paprika, right after there's watery stuff (tomatoes) in the pan. Probably about half a teaspoon. You could also use coriander powder, about 1 teaspoon, with the paprika. I personally think that all this stuff detracts from the elegant simplicity of the roasted eggplant, and muddies the flavors, but you know. De gustibus non est disputandum. You could use garlic in addition to or instead of the ginger. I think garlic is too subtle to stand against the strong roast eggplant flavor, whereas ginger can cut right through and provides a fresh, grassy counterpoint. You could begin the whole thing with some cumin seeds in oil, and then proceed with the onion and all the rest. But again, I think that muddies things. If you can get good eggplant and roast it really hot then that's worth showcasing.