518. Baigan raita / Eggplant yogurt salad

Appreciation 

    When one writes endearing comments on posts or facebook or likes your hard work, it brings immense satisfaction. Appreciating hard work has many advantages. One makes new connections, learns new things, makes one a better person, makes one work harder and above all makes one happy. We can appreciate what life offers us, appreciate what others do for us, appreciate when one cares for you, appreciate when someone teaches us. Appreciating someone else's work does not make one little but on the contrary makes them benevolent. Little words like sorry, thank you, hello,  makes ones day more happy. Lets make a conscious effort to appreciate more and complain less. That sort of contradicts what I wrote in my last post, however, after venting my frustration and anger, I calm down and appreciate the better things in life. 
  Coming to today's recipe,what is a raita? It is simply a yogurt based side dish which may contain raw or cooked vegetables, fruits or boondi (chickpea drops fried) along with spices. It is usually served along with parathas, rotis, naans, rice, curries, vegetable dishes etc. It usually has cooling effect to a hot curry or biryani or even grilled meats and vegetables. I love having raita during the hot season and sometimes make a meal out of it. 

Share you thought :
Do you appreciate someone's hard work easily?

BAIGAN RAITA / EGGPLANT  YOGURT SALAD
SERVES 4

1 large (approx 350g ) eggplant (brinjal)
2 cups fresh plain yogurt 
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
½ - 1 tsp garlic paste
1 green chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
½ tsp mustard seeds (rai)
4-6 fenugreek seeds (methi)
a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)

oil for greasing

for tempering (vaghar) :
1 tsp oil
½ - 1 tsp red chilli powder
1 dry red chilli

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 
2. Wash the eggplant, cut off the stem part and cut it into half.
3. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. 
4. Place the eggplant halves on the sheet, cut side down.
5. Brush oil over the eggplant. Roast the eggplant in the oven for 25 -30 minutes.
6. Remove the eggplant from the oven. The flesh should have becomes soft.
7. Let the eggplant cool a bit. Peel off the skin.
8. Mash the eggplant lightly.
9. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan over low to medium heat.
10. Add fenugreek and then the mustard and cumin seeds.
11. Add the chopped onion and stir fry till it becomes a bit soft.
12. Add garlic and chopped chilli. Stir fry for a few seconds.
13. Add the fried mixture to the mashed eggplant.
14. Add yogurt, coriander and salt to the mixture. Mix well.

Tempering :

1. Heat oil in a small pan over low heat. It should not be smoking hot.
2. Add the dry chilli and the chilli powder.
3. Immediately pour the mixture over the raita.

Serve the raita immediately or put it in the fridge to chill it.

Tips :

• Add chilli paste instead of chopped chilli.
• You can add ¼-½ tsp grated ginger.
• Adjust the spices according to your taste.
• Add chopped grapes or pomegranate arils to the raita.

You may want to check out the following :

pomegranate and cucumber raita

eggplant dip

banana cucumber raita