Britomart's Baingan Bharta

I'm apparently going through an eggplant phase. And Martian emailed me about making this last night. As I was in a hotel at the time with no access to a kitchen or Indian food, I was quite miffed & rather petulantly jealous. I remedied the situation tonight. Anyway, this turned out to be absolutely lovely!

Note: from emails with adharas tonight, this isn't the same as hers (and I'll get a full recipe of her version to post in here because she is a cook of astonishing talent), but it's awfully damn yummy.

• 1 large eggplant
• 2 medium sized onions, minced
• 1 small tomato
• 4-5 green chilies, minced (to taste, depending on your tolerance for spiciness!)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated finely
• small pinch of garam masala powder
• small bunch of cilantro, chopped finely
• salt
• 2 tbsp ghee (or oil)
• 2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp asafetida (available at Indian stores)
• ½ C yogurt

Roast eggplant in oven at 475 F for around 45 minutes. After half an hour, or when the skin of eggplant loosens up from the inner flesh, insert a knife and check if the inner portion of eggplant has turned soft. Remove from oven & cut eggplant open to help cool.

Once it’s cooled, peel the skin off the eggplant and scrape out the inner flesh of the eggplant. Scoop out black seeds, if any. Mash it with a spatula or chop coarsely.

Heat ghee/oil in a pan. When it's hot, add mustard seeds. As they pop, add asafoetida and turmeric powder. Add chilies, onions, garlic & ginger and fry till onions are browned. Add tomatoes and again fry till the oil separates from the mixture. Add mashed eggplant and give it a good stir.

Add garam masala powder and salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in yogurt, and serve with any Indian bread or rice.

blue artemis' Clafoutis

Okay, so I've never even heard of this dish, nor am I sure I'm even pronouncing it correctly. Regardless, I rather desperately want to eat this. Right. Now. blue artemis writes: This recipe came from the LA Times Food section a few years ago. Of course, I usually stick in in the fridge and eat it for breakfast, but that is me.

• 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of firm but ripe apricots, cut in half if small, quartered if large and pitted
• 2 tablespoons peach or apricot brandy (I usually use 3)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 6 to 8 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 3 eggs
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or 1/2
• teaspoon vanilla extract
• salt
• 2/3 cup sifted unbleached or all purpose flour
• butter for greasing
• powdered sugar for dusting

Toss apricots with brandy, lemon juice and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar in bowl. Let sit 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Drain liquid from apricots and combine with milk and yogurt. Beat eggs with vanilla, and rest of sugar (3 to 5 tablespoons depending on sweetness of fruit) and a dash of salt. Beat together. Slowly beat in flour, then mild mixture. Mix together well.

Arrange apricots in greased 10 or 10 1/2 ceramic tart dish or clafoutis dish,rounded side up. Pour in batter.

Bake at 400 degrees until top is browned, and clafoutis is firm, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly on rack. Use powdered sugar to dust. Serve warm.

Britomart's Eggplant Delight

As adharas has cruelly left us on her extended vacation in India, I was stuck surfing the web for Indian dishes with eggplant. I found this & enjoy it muchly. A number of recipes on this site looked yummy, so check it out. I have altered this one a bit and changed some of the instructions because that's just who I am.

• 2 medium-sized eggplants (or 6-7 little eggplants)
• I tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
• 1 medium-sized onion, diced
• 2 small tomatoes - diced
• 2- 3 green chilies - minced
• 3/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp salt
• small piece of ginger - washed & diced
• small bunch of chopped cilantro leaves

Wash eggplants and poke them with a knife. Bake for about an hour & a half at 350F. Eggplants are done when they've collapsed and look quite wretched.

In a blender, put the tomatoes, salt, green chilies, garam masala, black pepper and ginger and puree them.

Heat oil in a skillet & add onions and tumeric. Fry them for 4 - 5 minutes until the onions turn slightly brownish.

Remove the eggplants from the oven, slice open & let cool. Peel eggplant skin & mash or chop the lovely eggplant innards. Add the eggplant to the onions & the blended mixture aND cook over low heat for 5 - 7 minutes, stirring often.

Just before removing it from heat, add lemon juice and stir in cilantro.