The eggplant or the brinjal is an indispensable ingredient in my kitchen. We grow at least four varieties of eggplant in our garden as my son just loves it. I make a dozen dishes or so using brinjal. Of them, brinjal roast, which is called vaingana bhajja pitto in Konkani, is the most delicious, and I cook it every week for my family. This time, I have used the long green brinjal which grows well even in the rainy season, but just about any variety will do fine for this mouthwatering dish.
Organic brinjals freshly plucked from our garden.
Traditionally, tamarind is used to infuse tanginess in the dish. For this recipe, however, I have used our organic grape tomatoes with far better results. If grape tomatoes are not available, just use regular tomatoes or a bit of tamarind, or some dry mango powder. Before making the brinjal roast, we need to make the bhajja pitto (mixed roast powder). This powder is easy to make and can be stored in airtight containers. A batch of bhajja pitto (85 gm) is enough to make the brinjal roast half a dozen times (15 gm at a time). In olden times, the ingredients for bhajja pitto were roasted, and then pounded to coarse powder using the mortar and pestle. To keep it simple and easy for you, I have roasted the ingredients and ground them to fine powder in the food processor. Be sure to cook and enjoy!
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