2 medium eggplants
Directions
Cooking the eggplant: Poke the eggplants (say 2, medium sized ones)
with a knife, and insert slivers of garlic in the slits. The eggplant
can be roasted either in a conv. oven, a microwave, or ideally, on a
slow charcoal grill. When they are done (they become kinda' limp),
peel, and mash up the insides. Use a knife to cut up the long fibres.
Seasoning: In a wok, heat some oil, and add chopped onions, and
chopped ginger. Fry till the onions are semi-browned, and then add
the mashed eggplant. Add salt, and pepper to taste. Season with lots
of chopped cilantro (coriander leaves). Since the eggplant is already
cooked, you need not cook for long in the wok... just long enough to
mix things up good. A tomato or two chopped fine, and added with the
eggplant also tastes good. Alternative sesoning: Chop onions, ginger,
tomatoes, and cilantro, and mix *cold* with the mashed eggplant, and
a few table spoons of mustard oil. The mustard oil gives a nice tangy
taste. Look for mustard oil in your nearest Indian grocery store.
(Salt and pepper too.)
Servings: 1 servings
Baigan Bharta (Mashed Eggplant) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Eggplant; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
Written recipes as an idea can be traced way back into the far past, certainly as far back into history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further than that. Interesting though that maybe, sadly, these early cookbooks were just primitive pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for meal preparation.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered, according to academics is a series of stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel exhilarated and blissful. Later on, in The time of the romans 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of scripts detailing recipes enjoyed by the Romans. In his works, Apicius recounts how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main meal and afters, something that is very familiar to us today. Aspicius also informs us how the early Romans made use of many different herbs, including a few that are still present in modern kitchens such as basil, fennel and parsley. Continuing our culinary historical journey, we have a couple of recipe books published in the 14th Century - a cookery book called `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, these books have no connection with the spicy food that appears on menues today, but rather descriptions of the types of meals cooked for the rich and powerful of those days. Later on, in the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and spices from the holy land, such as coriander, parsley, and rosemary. These new spices and herbs created an explosion in manuscripts on cookery, some of which still exist in private collections. Over the succeeding few centuries, the upper-class families of Wesstern Europe competed to serve up the most extravagent banquests, and consequentially cooks and their recipes were much in demand. Even so, it wasn`t until the 19th century that cooking and recipe publications really came of age. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, dedicated the best years of their lives to assembling, verifying, and recording the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. When we get to the twentieth century, cookbooks were in great demand, as a result of increased literacy, people having increased spare time and disposable income. The TV revolution gave us TV cookery programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everybody to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on sites such as the one you are reading now. |
We hope you enjoy this Baigan Bharta (Mashed Eggplant) recipe.
