Begun Bhaja
Thick brinjal rounds rubbed with turmeric and chilli, fried in smoking mustard oil until the edges go dark gold and the middle turns soft as cream. Rice, dal, lime.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 large round brinjal (begun), 350 to 400 g, the fat purple kind
- 1 tsp Stone Ground Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 3/4 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp lime juice, optional
- 4 tbsp rice flour, optional, for a crisper crust
- 6 tbsp Cold Pressed Black Mustard Oil
- 2 green chillies, to serve
- 1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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A Bengali lunch plate, rice piled in the middle, a puddle of dal beside it, and two thick rounds of fried brinjal at the edge with a raw green chilli and a wedge of lime. That is the whole meal on an ordinary weekday. On rainy days it goes with khichuri instead. Nobody writes this recipe down at home. You cut the rounds thick, rub in turmeric and chilli, and stand at the pan for five minutes.
The oil is the flavour here, not the background. Wooden cold pressed black mustard oil is pressed slowly in a wooden ghaani in small batches. Take it up until it looks thin and a light smoke lifts off the surface, then bring the flame straight down to medium. That one step takes the raw sting away and leaves the deep nutty smell that makes fried brinjal taste Bengali rather than just fried. Our Stone Ground Red Chilli Powder gives the slices a warm red colour without making the plate hot.
The one rule: fry on medium and turn each slice only once. Three to four minutes on the first side, untouched, until the underside is deep gold. Every extra flip breaks the soft flesh, and a brinjal pushed around the pan drinks oil instead of browning.
How to make it
- Wash the brinjal and cut it into rounds a full 1 cm thick. Any thinner and they go limp in the pan. Any thicker and the middle stays raw while the outside darkens.
- Mix the turmeric, chilli powder, salt, sugar and lime juice in a small bowl. Rub this over both sides of every slice with your fingers so the colour is even. Leave them 10 minutes, no longer.
- If you want a crisp crust, spread the rice flour on a plate and press each slice into it. Shake off whatever does not stick. Skip this step for the plain home style.
- Heat the mustard oil in a heavy frying pan on medium-high until the oil looks thin and a light smoke lifts off the surface. Lower the flame to medium straight away.
- Lay the slices in a single layer with space between them. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes without touching them, until the underside is deep gold and the edges look crisp.
- Turn each slice once. Fry the second side for 3 minutes, pressing very lightly with the back of a spatula. The flesh should look soft and creamy through the middle.
- Lift them onto a steel rack or plate and sprinkle a small pinch of salt while hot. If you are frying a second batch, add oil down the side of the pan and let it heat before the slices go in.
- Serve straight away, hot, with rice and dal or with khichuri, a raw green chilli and a wedge of lime.
Tips
- Do not salt the brinjal and leave it. Ten minutes is right. Leave it half an hour and the slices weep, go soggy and then soak up far more oil in the pan.
- Pick the right brinjal. The fat round purple one meant for bharta is best. It should feel light for its size, with tight shiny skin. Heavy ones are full of seeds and turn bitter.
- Make ahead: you can cut and rub the spices up to 30 minutes before. But fry only at the last minute. Begun bhaja goes soft within ten minutes of leaving the pan, and it does not reheat well.
- If your bhaja is oily, the pan was not hot enough when the slices went in. Wait for the light smoke, then lower the flame, then fry. That order matters.
