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Begun Bhaja 3

Begun Bhaja or Bengali Style Brinjal Fry

Portions of brinjal cut into round or long slices and then fried with some spices. The skin is crispy and the flesh is soft and plump. It goes well with luchi or poori or even with khichudi. Recipe Author: Madhushree
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Appetizers, Main Course
Cuisine Bengali, Indian
Servings 8 nos

Ingredients
  

  • 2 nos Brinjal/ Begun It should ideally be a medium sized one
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder optional
  • 1 tsp aata or whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp Sugar
  • oil for deep frying

Instructions
 

  • Wash the brinjals and pat them dry. Cut each of them into long quarter slicers. Basically, cut the brinjal into 4 quarters length wise along with the stem.
  • Sprinkle turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt, sugar and aata on the slices and massage them over the skin on all sides.
  • Now there are 2 ways of frying them. Either you could shallow fry in a frying pan (which is what most people do on a regular basis) or you could deep fry them. When there is a large quantity to be made, it is better to deep fry since it is quicker and brinjals more or less soak up too much oil in any case. But for just two people, it is better to shallow fry. It is more time consuming but requires less oil of course.
  • To deep fry, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, put in the slices slowly into the oil. Bring the temperature to medium. We don't want the skin to burn without the inside cooking. If you see that the skin is burning too fast, then completely lower the temeperature.
  • It takes about 5 minutes for each batch of slices to cook completely. The skin has to be browned and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to drain out the oil and keep the slices on a kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil.
  • Sprinkle poppy seeds and serve them hot with khichdi or luchi. We also eat with roti, paratha and just about anything.
  • In case you don't want to deep fry, then for shallow frying, it is better to cut the rbinjals into round slices, about a cm thick. then continue the process of massaging the slices with the spices.
  • In a frying pan, take 2 - 3 tbsp of oil and when the oil is hot, place the slices on the frying pan. Then lower the temperature. Cover the fring pan for a couple of minutes. Open the lid and sprinkle a little bit of water.
  • Flip the slices to the other side, raise the temperature for a minute and again lower the temperature and cover and cook.
  • Here also, you have to decide on when to increase or decrease the temperature depending on how the skin is burning. If ou feel the need, then add a little bit more of oil.
  • When the flesh has become soft, turn off the heat and serve them hot.

Notes

A lot of people do not use turmeric and red chili powder for begun bhaja. They simply rub salt, sugar and aata and fry. Then there are some who add rice flour instead of aata to fry.