Baingan masala, aka Brinjal masala, is a popular eggplant recipe from the Northern regions of India. This recipe is an adapted version of bharva baingan, aka stuffed baingan curry.
However, both baingan masala & bharva baingan are different. The making process is almost similar, but the ingredients differ in both recipes. Let’s see what the individual differences are.
Table of Contents
The first & the foremost differentiation is the stuffing. In other words, the bharva baingan recipe requires stuffing masala into vertically slit brinjals.
On the other hand, baingan masala has no masala stuffing in it. So although brinjals in the baingan masala recipe are vertically slit yet, they aren’t stuffed.
Secondly, brinjals in the brinjal masala recipe need to be shallow fried. So, shallow fry your brinjals & then cook in the masala curry.
The process in bharva baingan is entirely in contrast. There’s no masala curry to cook stuffed brinjals. Instead, add cooking oil & water, cover the lid or blow 4-5 whistles in a pressure cooker. That’s it. Your bharva baingan is ready.
Now that we know the difference let’s show you how to cook. However, before we begin with the ingredients and steps, let’s first look at the pre-preparations one must do.
As I said above, we need a particular variety of brinjals to make this recipe. Usually, we use dark purple brinjals. But for baingan masala, we need greenish-purple ones. This particular variety is also known as the desi baingan in native languages here in India. Refer to the image below.
Image Courtesy: Farmnest
Surprisingly, more than a dozen varieties of brinjals are cultivated in India. During my research, I came across the types of brinjals. Here’s the link for reference – India Gardening.