Baingan Ka Salan / Stuffed Brinjal In Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

10-12 Baby Eggplants
2 tbsp Oil

Stuffing powder:

½ heaped cup peanuts
2 heaped tbsp desiccated/fresh coconut
2 tbsp sesame seeds
¾ tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel Seeds
4-5 Dry Red Chillies (Adjust to taste)
1 tsp Sugar
½ tsp Amchur/Dry Mango Powder
Salt to taste

Method:

Make a deep X slit at the back of the brinjals keeping the stems intact. Place these baby eggplants in a bowl filled with cold water.

Dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and dry red chillies together for 2 minutes on medium flame until you get a good aroma.

In a same pan, dry roast coconut till it turns light golden in colour, roast the sesame seeds then the peanuts seperatly.

Let the roasted spices and coconut cool completely before grinding them all with roasted peanuts to fine powder( use the pulse option in your blender to avoid releasing the oils from peanuts)

Add sugar, salt to taste and dry mango powder to ground powder and mix them well.

Now start stuffing the baby eggplants with the spice powder. Take care not to break the eggplant from its stem. Once you have stuffed all of the baby eggplants, you will still be left with the ground spice powder. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan on high flame till it reaches smoking point and then lower the flame to medium-high.
Place the stuffed baby eggplants in one single layer and cover the pan with lid. Let it cook undisturbed for 3-4 mins. Now gently flip the baby eggplants on other side. Cover the lid again and let it cook for another 3 minutes. This will help in bringing the smoky flavour to the baby eggplants by charring their skin to dark brown color.

Now mix in the remaining ground powder with 1½ - 2 cups of water, pour the mixture over the cooking brinjal and mix them well and cover the lid. Let it cook for 7-10 minutes or until the brinjals are cooked well, stirring in between to make sure that the gravy doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add little more water if you find the gravy to be too thick.

 Notes:

The cooking time varies based on the size of baby eggplants used. So increase or decrease the cooking time based on how small or big the baby eggplant you use. I have used the purple coloured baby eggplants which can be replaced with the normal variety that is commonly available in any Asian stores. The peanut and coconut thickens the gravy as well as gives creamy base to this Stuffed Baby Eggplants.

Enjoy with Roti or Biryani...