October 30th, 2006
Baingan ‘Mazedaar’ (Eggplant stuffed with spices)
This is another super hit recipe for making eggplant (‘baingan’) by Madhu Aunty. I call this dish Baingan mazedaar, because when I was a little kid, one of our neighbors used to sing a song for me titled “Baingan Mazedaar” (mazedaar means “Fun”) 
I dont remember it exactly, but this is what I did tonite, and it is fantastic! One of the ingredients was missing (aamchur powder, ie. dried mango powder), so I substituted that by few tsps of lemon juice.
Super easy way to make eggplant.
Ingredients:
small size eggplants about 6-8,
1 tsp red chilli powder,
1 tsp turmeric (haldi),
1 tsp corriander (dhania) powder
1/2 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garam masala
oil for cooking about 2 tbsp,
mustard seeds about 1/2 tsp
if you have aamchur powder, then about 1 tsp of that or else, I put few tsp of lemon juice concentrate on top of this, I will mention it later.
Wash the eggplants, and cut off the tops. Now make two cuts through the center, do not cut it completely. The eggplant should be intact, just slits, to put the spice mix in it. Look at the picture.
Now mix all the spices and salt together. Stuff all the eggplants with this. Tie each eggplant with a piece of thread to hold them intact. Now heat the oil, put the mustard seeds in it. After it crackles, arrange the eggplants facing straight up. At this point, since I didnt have aamchur powder, I squeezed few drops of lemon juice on eggplants. Reduce the heat to slow. Cover the kadhai (a small dish used commonly in India for frying), and let it cook on slow for sometime (about 15-20 mins). Thats it!
Remove the threads, and serve with daal (lentils prepared in Indian style) and steamed rice.