Begun is the Bengali word for brinjal, and bhaja means fried. Baingan or begun bhaja is nothing but marinated and fried brinjal slices. Instead of deep-frying, I went with shallow frying. The April month BM journey through cuisine’s taught me a lot of recipes from Bengal. I haven’t explored the cuisine of East India. So I did bookmark a few recipes, and also, I was asking my fellow bloggers for recipes from other states and bookmarked quite a lot. I can’t wait to try them. :-) I love this BM group, and I learn a lot from them. :-) Basically, this bhaja can be tried with any veggies. I know during April BM, Sapana posted aloo bhaja, and when I was looking for other recipes, I found this begun bhaja and tried it right away.
It’s a super simple recipe. All you need to do is slice the eggplant into thin rounds, marinate, and shallow fry. Traditionally the eggplants are fried in mustard oil, but I am going with regular sunflower oil. I did add mustard seed powder to compensate for that. I know it doesn’t justify but still added to get that mustard flavor. Without any delay, here is the Bengali fame Begun Bhaja. Check out my other recipes from Bengal – Jhalmuri, Rasgulla, Moong Dal Kichuri.
Here are the first two brinjal recipe that I posted, And here is the third one…
Ingredients
Long Purple Brinjal / Eggplant – 1 Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsps Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp Besan/Chick Pea Flour – 1 tbsp Mustard Seed Powder – 1 tsp Salt – 2 tsps Oil – for shallow frying
Prep Work
Chop the eggplant into thin round slices. Wash them and pat them dry.
Steps
Add the red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, chickpea flour, and mustard seed powder to the cleaned eggplant slices. Mix them well and let them sit for about 20 minutes.
Heat a wide pan and add oil. Once it’s hot, turn the heat to medium. Once the oil is hot, add these marinated eggplant slices and cook until they turn brown and crisp. I cooked on one side for about 3 to 4 minutes and slowly flipped them and cooked until they turned brown. If required, add more oil. As my pan was wide, I add all my slices in one shot and shallow fried. Depending upon your pan size, fry them in batches.
That’s it. Begun Bhaja is ready. This goes well with roti and also rice recipes.
Recipe Notes
Mustard oil is preferable for frying but opt for any oil of your choice. Mustard seed powder is optional. Adjust the red chili powder and salt according to your preference. Instead of chickpea flour, you can add rice flour too. You deep fry or bake these marinated slices.
📖 Recipe
