Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Sorshe Begun (Baby brinjals in mustard & yoghurt gravy)



Mustard is one of the most preffered spice in Bengali cooking, as I said in my earlier posts. Bengalis are quite fond of this seed, not only Mustard oil is the preffered and main cooking oil there, but seeds and paste are also appear in quite a few of our delicacies. If you followed my earlier posts, You'll see I have also posted many veg. dishes which are cooked with this paste. Almost all the vegetables are cooked with this paste, fish, even eggs are also cooked with this paste. Off Course, there is some reason for this love of Mustard, as Mustard is considered as "One of the World's healthiest spices". Check out my other post, where I explained the health benefits of mustard seed and oil.
My today's recipe is one of the delicacy of Bengali cooking, " Sorshe begun" , where baby soft brinjals/aubergines are fried and doused with freshly ground mustard and yoghurt/curd paste and tempered with Panch phoron(five spice mix). My mom is a great cook and this is one such dish my mom cooks the best. I made this many times, but never could bring the same test like mom.



 Ingredients :

Long baby brinjal/aubergine : 7-8 pieces
Yoghurt/curd/dahi : 3/4 cup
Ginger : 1/2 " piece
Garlic : 3-4 cloves
Green chilli : 2-3(slit lengthwise)
Mustard seed : 1and 1/2 tblsp.
Gram Flour/besan : 1 tblsp. 
Turmeric Powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp. (as per taste)
Panch Phoron : 1 tsp.(mixture of mustard, fennel, white cumin, black cumin/kalonji and fenugreek/methi seed-mix in equal measure)
Mustard oil : 3-4 tblsp.(prefferably mustard oil, can use any other oil)
Sugar : 2 tsp.
                                           Salt to taste
                                           Fresh coriander leaves(few sprigs) : chopped

Method :
  • Trim the end of the stalks and cut brinjals lengthwise into 4. (see the picture below). Rub about 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. turmeric into inside of the brinjals and fry them in medium hot oil until soft and almost cooked. Remove on to kitchen tissue.


  • Preperations : 1. Soak the mustard seed in 2 tblsp. hot water for 10 minutes, then whiz to a smooth paste in a blender. Remove and set aside. 2. Put remaining turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger and garlic with little water in a blender and make a smooth paste of it. Remove and keep aside. 3. Using a whisk, mix together yoghurt, gram flour, sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.
  • Heat oil in a pan, add slit green chillies and panch phoron. When spices start to crackle, add ginger-garlic(2nd preperation) paste and stir fry for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to sim, and add the yoghurt mix. (because if yoghurt boils, it tends to split)
  • Gently mix the spices and cook for 1-2 minutes, check the sugar-salt balance. Then mix the mustard paste, mix thoroughly with yoghurt, cook for 2 minutes. Then carefully place the fried brinjals in the sauce. 
  • Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves over it, cover the pan and simmer for 3-4 minutes. As brinjals are already cooked, this step is just to incorporate brinjals with sauce. 
Spinkle few more coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice.....enjoy

There are lots of good memories attached to this recipe. As this is one of my favorite dish, My mom used to make this on every Birthday of mine. But now, far away from mom, I miss mom's cooking and whenever I make this, it brings tears to my eyes.
Sending this mouth watering brinjal gravy to HOTM#31 - Retro Dishes , hosted by Ilva of The Heart of the Matter-eating for life





14 comments:

Chitra said...

Very nice..i love brinjals..feel like tasting it rite now :)

Renus Kitchen said...

very nice recipe....never tried this one !

Unknown said...

i love brinjal made this way...looks delicious..

Shanthi Krishnakumar said...

Nice gravy and new dish with brinjals in mustard & yoghurt and thank you for your comment on my family photo

Sharmila said...

Oshadharon! Gorom bhaater shonge jome jabe. :-)

Tina said...

Never tried this....Looks delicious and colourful..

Suparna said...

good one Indrani, keep them coming :) I love all the typical Bengali recipes :) I've got one more to my list, thanks to u.
TC

Soma Pradhan said...

Lovely Recipe...a good combination

Sayantani said...

we love this recipe and in our house it is known as beguner jhal or begun basanti. lovely dish...looks delish!

Sum Raj said...

nice and very good click...looks tempting

Ushnish Ghosh said...

Dear Indrani
Very nice recipe!. I cook some sort of doi sharshe begun ...but this is very different ,I am going to try it and book marking it.
bhalo rheko

Soma said...

Eta darun. Ma khoob korto. Gorom Gorm bhaat diye.

Urmi said...

Shorshe begun amar bhishon priyo. Infact shorshe diye je kono ranna korlei shushadu khete hoy. Darun presentation r chhobita dekhe to ekhoni khete ichhe korchhe.
Tomar jonno ekta surprise achhe amar blog e visit koro.

Tulip said...

Ki daruun....sorshe bata ache kintu begun nei....next kinlei banate hobe...lobhoniyo :)


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