Khandesi Bharit

Eggplant or Baingan bharta/ bharit are made with different style in different region in India. This is Maharastrian kahndesi style bharit or bharta. It doesn't have much spices apart from turmeric and amazing flavour of mild fried garlic and roasted peanuts.
I am proud to present the mouth watering bharta recipe from the region of Khandesh.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Eggplant: 4 (bharta eggplant are special, they are large in shape and should have nice body to get more pulp after roasting)
Spring onion: 2
Garlic: 8 cloves
Green chili: 6-8 (take more to make it hot)
Coriander: handful
Peanuts: 10-12
Coconut: dry or fresh: 10-12 pieces of 1 cm long thin slices.
Salt to taste
Oil:
Turmeric: 1-2 tea spoon
Asafoetida: pinch

Preparation:
Wash and wipe eggplant. Place them directly over the gas flame on medium heat.
Cook until the skin is burnt and cracks open. One side will take up to 5 minutes to cook.
Check the cooked side and flip over to another side. Do the same for all eggplants.
[Note: to save time, use all burner available]

Take the smoky eggplant onto a plate
and cover it with foil paper. This will help skin to come off.
Remove foil after 5-10 minutes.

Peel the skin off from all eggplants and do not throw the juice that comes out of eggplant. Drain the juice to remove the burnt skin if required.
Mess the eggplant gently to make a paste.
Peel garlic clove and wash green chili and remove the stem. Cut chilies into two piece.
Heat the 1 table spoon of oil in small round vessel or you can do it on a flat pan. Once the oil is hot add garlic and let the garlic get soft and skin get slight brown. Remove the garlic.
Do the same for chilies. Lightly cook them in oil. Be careful while cooking chilies in oil.
Remove chilies from oil and mix it together with garlic. Make a coarse paste of garlic and chili using blender.

Add the paste in eggplant.
Add washed, cleaned, finely chopped coriander to it and mix well. Roast peanuts till the skin is brown. Let it cool down for 5 minutes. Remove the skin.
Make small slices of coconut. Take dry or wet, doesn't matter. Wash spring onion thoroughly. Cut it into thin pieces.
Heat the pan and add 1 table spoon of oil. Once the oil is hot add asafoetida.
Add peanuts, coconut and stir it well in the oil.
Add Spring onions and cook for 2 minutes.
Add salt to taste and turmeric. Add eggplant mix and give it a nice stir.
Cover and let it cook for 10 minutes on low flame. Stir in between to make sure eggplant is not sticking to the pan.

Switch off the gas and let it stand with lid on for another 10 minutes. This will help eggplant absorb all the flavours.

Serve hot with thick rotis of pearl millet (bajri) or sorghum millet (jowar) flour and onions. Squeeze little lime juice on bharit if you fancy is bit tangy taste.