bharta and burgers

We have a goodly number of eggplants to go through soon as I accidentally "restocked" when we still had a full load.

Luckily, we like eggplant in this house.

Later in the week we'll whip up some eggplant parmesan, but on Sunday we experimented with an Indian dish: baingan bharta, an eggplanty, tomatoey stew.

First, you have to roast the eggplants. I did it the fun way: on the stove!

Reason #14 why I like having a gas stove. You can do stuff like this. I found a couple of recipes, pages and videos describing how to roast an eggplant and I was excited to try. Tips: keep the flame on low. Turn every couple of minutes. It's harder to over-roast than to under-roast, so err on the side of extra time.

It's done when the skin is blackened and papery and the flesh looks like it has collapsed. Here are the tools of my trade!

We had two eggplants, a small and a large. The large one was roasted more conventionally, in the oven.

We then cooked up some baingan bharta!

Lessons learned for next time: add more tomatoes and more salt. I also want the eggplants to be even more roasted so they get mashier. I think this thing should be a mush rather than chunky.

Monday Cooking: red lentil burgers.

These are wonderful, easy, tasty... and slightly time-consuming. The lentils have to be boiled 20-40 minutes and supervised more closely as more time goes by, and after that they need a little time to cool. After the supervision, though, you throw some strong and spicy ingredients into a pan, let those cool, and goop it all together for easy veggie burgers. Serve with raita or BBQ sauce.

This raita used up the last remnants of our labneh, also recently appearing in the yogurt salad served with the falafel chicken.
We ate the burgers on slices of oat bread from Max Mart.

Punjabi Baingan Bharta
courtesy about.com

Ingredients:
3 medium-sized eggplants (roughly 500gms/ 1 pound)
2 tbsps vegetable/ sunflower/ canola cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 medium-sized onions chopped fine
1 tbsp garlic paste or garlic chopped very fine
1" piece of ginger grated fine
2 green chillies
2 large tomatoes chopped fine
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsps finely chopped fresh green coriander

Preparation:
First, roast the eggplants - on a gas stove, in the oven or on the grill. Allow to cool, then remove the skin and roughly mash the flesh.

Set up a pan on medium heat and add the cooking oil. When hot, add the cumin seeds and cook till the spluttering stops.
Add the onions and fry till soft and translucent.
Add the garlic and the ginger and fry for 1 minute.
Add the tomato and all the powdered spices, including the garam masala. Stir well and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring often to prevent the spice mix from sticking to the pan. Sprinkle a little water if needed.
Now add the eggplant and mix well. Add the chopped fresh coriander and stir. Cook another minute and turn off the heat.
Serve hot with chapatis or rice and your favorite daal dish.



Red Lentil Burgers spiked with chillies and garlic
courtesy of the Hamlyn Vegetable Book. Sorry about the lack of imperial measurements!

Ingredients:
275 g (9 oz) split red lentils
750ml (1 1/4 pints) boiling water (this takes AGES to boil off - I was fine, and much quicker, with 500ml this time)
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
65g (2 1/2 oz) red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped (as usual, we used local green bell peppers because they're a tenth the price of imported red bell peppers.)
1-2 small red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
250g (8oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
150g (5oz) mature Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp tomato puree
3 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1/2 tsp yeast extract (we don't have any sitting around, but I substitute some strong flavor with Worcestershire sauce)
1 small egg, beaten
vegetable oil, for frying
salt and pepper

Preparation:
1. Wash the lentils and put them into a large saucepan of boiling water. Return to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook gently for 20-40 minutes until the lentils are pulpy, the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is dry in texture. Stir frequently during cooking to ensure that the lentils do not burn. Spread the cooked lentils on a baking sheet and set aside to cool.

2. Meanwhile, heat the sunflower oil and fry the onion, garlic, red pepper and chilli until soft but not coloured. Set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, combine the lentils, onion mixture, 150g (5oz) of the breadcrumbs, the Cheddar cheese, tomato puree, parsley and yeast extract. Stir well, season and add the beaten egg, then mix to combine.

4. Divide the mixture into 12 pieces. Dip them in the remaining breadcrumbs and make into burgers about 7cm (3 inches) in diameter. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and fry the burgers for about 5-6 minutes until very hot all the way through and brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel and serve hot.

Makes 12 burgers, to serve 6.


Serve with Cucumber & Mint Raita

Ingredients:
200ml (7 fl oz) of natural yogurt
7cm (3 inch) piece of cucumber, peeled and then coarsely grated or chopped
2 tbsp chopped mint
pinch of ground cumin
pepper
squeeze of lemon or lime juice
mint sprigs, to garnish

1. Put the yogurt in a bowl and beat lightly with a fork or whisk until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate until required. Serve chilled, garnished with mint sprigs.

Makes 300ml, enough to serve 4-6.