- Egg Plants - 2 Large or 4 Small
- Onion - 1 large or 2 Small
- Mustard Seeds - 1 Teaspoon
- Turmeric Powder - 1/2 Teaspoon
- Green Chilis - 3 to 6 (depending on how burnt you want you tongue) - chop chop
- Salt - to taste
- Cumin Seeds - 1/2 Teaspoon
Alright, I am going to apologize for that title – but that is exactly how I feel about this dish. My mom used to make it, i used to love it – I still do. There is a sense of rawness in this dish, yet it is strong, powerful and surprisingly refined.
Let me tell you something, in India we dont grill for shit! We never grill, we dont burn stuff – meat or vegetable and there is no question of barbecue, we dont know what it is. I am not kidding! I used to watch discovery channel, or well it was National Geographic at that time – and once in a while I would see some White people burning meat (BBQ) and some Blacks frying chicken. (oh dont be so sensitive, I call myself brown; I have more black, white friends than brown. I have no problem identifying someone by the color of their skin cause, it doesn’t come from my heart/head; it purely is a visual thing. I have 2 business partners, one black the other white. One of my good friend is Chinese from Los Angeles) OK, enough about race, who cares? Not me, and you shouldn’t too!
Back to the eggplant…lol…
I think my admiration for this dish comes from the fact that I’ve been suppressed and oppressed by my mother (I love you mom) in the kitchen and deprived of anything burnt/BBQ/grilled!!!! Try this and you might actually like it – it is a bit of an acquired taste!
There are several ways to do this, but lets burn the bastards today 
just cause I love to. You can also boil them in a pot, but, you wont get that burnt vegetably BBQed heavenly smell! Lets get primal friends!!!
- Wash the Eggplant
- Grill/BBQ at around 400 F until the whole skin is burnt and you can feel that the inside is cooked (poke it)
- Leave it for a few minutes to cool down once its properly grilled/burnt.
- Peel off the skin from the eggplant
- Mash the suckers
- Add chopped onions and gree chili
- VARIATION – if you dont like the taste of crunchy raw onions like my friend Isabel, grind both of them in a blender. I like it raw
- Add Turmeric powder, mix em all well! (Onion + eggplant + green chili + turmeric powder)
- In a smaller, separate pan (really small), heat 1 Tablespoon of oil
- When it heats up, dump the Mustard seeds into it, let them splutter completely (p.s. – I usually run away or cover the damn oil with a tissue, cause it splutters and I end up cleaning up the mess next morning, cause I cant afford a mexican maid)
- Take blended mix of from step 8 – combine them with the Oil+Mustard and let it heat for about 5 minutes – mix it well, keep mixing.
- Add salt
- Garnish with some coriander leave (I would normally be so hungry by now, that I would east the damn thing)
