Begun Bhorta Recipe

Writing about eggplant/brinjal is a bit amusing because it is just a vegetable yet so much more. I don’t think the emoji for eggplant has ever been used to represent a vegetable. But we are here to learn and cook, not text. So put your emoji keyboards away.

Now readers, I will be honest. I did not know the word “brinjal” before today. Begun is the Bangla word for me and at some point in life I learned the English for Begun is Eggplant. So today when I saw the word Brinjal, I got curious and started searching. Apparently brinjal is the original name for the vegetable. And sometime around the 18th century in Europe the colorless variant of the vegetable was named eggplant because it was shaped and colored like an egg. And somehow the name eggplant caught up and became synonymous with brinjal.

This naming story made me think that the plant has a western origin. But to my surprise it is native to the Indian subcontinent. And even the name “Brinjal” is of Indian origin. One source mentioned that the name is derived from Sanskrit, while another source mentioned Arabic and Sansrik influence on the word.

The most special feature of Begun Bhorta to me is the roasted flavor. Alu Bhorta (Mashed potato) is made by simply boiling potato and then mashing it. Most Bhortas follow a similar pattern of boiling or cooking the item and then mashing it with other spices. I always thought there is a similar way of making Begun Bhorta as well. Especially since in my house the dish is referred to as Begun Pora (Roasted Eggplant). The name is very representative of how the dish is made, and this made me think that there is another way to make Begun Bhorta, without roasting it.

But a little research informed me that no matter how you want to make Begun Bhorta, you have to first grill/roast it. So technically all Begun Bhortas are Begun Poras, shocking!

Needing to grill the eggplant first is about the only common step between my household’s Begun Bhorta and Moni Dadi’s Begun Bhorta. I have previously mentioned, and followers of Moni Dadi’s recipes should have also noticed that Moni Dadi usually simplifies a recipe, often avoiding commonly used ingredients. She even cooked chicken without onions. I would have called it blasphemy if the dish didn’t taste as good as it did.

But for today’s Begun Bhorta she decided to shake things up a little. The simple way of making Begun Bhorta is by first roasting the eggplant and maybe roasting some garlic with it. Once roasted, the skin is peeled off and the eggplant is smashed. Fried or raw onion, ginger, green chili are added while smashing for taste. There are other steps and ingredients but this is the gist of it, you can find this kind of recipe anywhere.

But Moni Dadi did a few things differently than the basic Begun Bhorta. Firstly she burned a whole garlic and smashed it along with the eggplant. Then she fried tomatoes and added them to the mix. These two steps are still pretty common and you’d find recipes doing something similar. What surprised me the most is her adding sour yogurt to the Bhorta.

I have seen sour yogurt being used to marinate meat, or straight up dishes named Doi-Ilish, Doi-Chingri, Doi-Potol (Doi means yogurt). But I had not seen yogurt being used in a Bhorta before. But I have learned to not doubt the methods of Moni Dadi. And, to nobody’s surprise, my faith was well placed.

The tomato and yogurt give the roasted eggplant a sour, tangy flavor. Try the Bhorta out with boiled rice and you will not regret it.

Note that you can roast the eggplant on a gas stove, oven, or electric stove. But I prefer roasting it on a gas stove for the proper flavor. If you have access to a coal stove, I would highly recommend using that. The more naturally the eggplant is burned, the better it tastes.