GRILLED/MASHED EGGPLANT

Did you know eggplants are actually fruits? I know right!! To do a little research before I could write about this dish, this was the first information I came across. Apparently, eggplants are barely eaten raw. Hence, it often disguises itself as a vegetable. It also belongs to the same family as potato and tomato named "Solanaceae family" informally known as nightshade or potato family. I have eaten eggplants since forever and cooked eggplant every other day but I barely knew these.

Well let's get back to the dish. Mashed vegetables and fruits are very common in Bangladeshi cuisine and eggplant is one of them. I literally had to go back and add fruits to the list! What specifically piqued my interest was how it was made. If you are familiar with Baba Ganoush, this is just a Bangladeshi version of this dish. If you are not, then go ahead and give this a read. I am sure you'll enjoy it.

Baba Ganoush is basically hummus with grilled eggplants replacing chickpeas. I have seen my mom grill an eggplant and whip this up in no time since eggplants cook real fast. So I decided to try this out for lunch. To start off, I needed to grill the eggplant but since I didn't have a grill, I wrapped up the eggplant with an aluminium foil and left it on the stove. You can leave it on without the aluminium foil but I didn't want drippings on my stove. It is interesting how eggplants absorb that smoky flavor in such a jiffy. I let it grill till it was completely cooked, took about 15 minutes or so. Once ready, this is where the Bangladeshi flavors come in. Instead of adding tahini, what I did is add julienned onions, chopped roasted red chili, salt and mustard oil. I then gave it a good mix and there you go all ready to be dug in. I often side it with omelette, however this time I decided to go with omelette souffle. I will be writing a blog on it soon, so do check it out.

Ingredients: (for 2 servings)

1 pcs medium sized eggplant

1 pcs roasted red chili

1 tbsp julienned onions

1.5 tsp salt

2 tbsp mustard oil

In a plate, add a generous amount of the mashed eggplant sided with steamed rice and omelette and voila! delicious mashed eggplant is ready to be served.