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Kashmiri Baingan Aloo - Indian Eggplant and Potatoes

Kashmiri Baingan Aloo - Indian Eggplant and Potatoes is an easy recipe that's full of flavor. Eggplant recipes are very common in Kashmiri cuisine.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 18 minutes
Servings: 6
Course: Main Course, Side
Cuisine: Indian, Indian Food, Kashmiri
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 3 yukon gold potatoes (611 grams), small (3 and 1/4 cups chopped)
  • 2 eggplants, small (Indian eggplants) (chopped to 4 pieces each)
  • 3 tbsp oil of choice
  • 2 whole cloves     (laung)
  • 1 whole, dried red chili
  • 1 whole black cardamom pods      (kali elaichi)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds       (jeera)
  • 2 tbsp kashmiri chili powder
  • 2 and 1/2 cups water (divided)
  • 1/4 tsp ground turmeric      (haldi)
  • 1 tsp ground ginger         (sonth)
  • 2 tbsp ground fennel  (saunf powder)
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 green chillies, whole (optional), to top off

Equipment

  • 1 deep pot

Method
 

  1. Rinse the eggplants by running them under cold water and wiping dry with a paper towel. In Kashmiri recipes, you don’t slice off the top of the eggplant. You keep the stem intact. Cut the eggplant body in half lengthwise/vertically. Further, cut each eggplant to two more half’s. So each eggplant will have 4 pieces. 8 pieces in all for 2 eggplants.
  2. Rinse and peel the potatoes and chop them to 3 to 4 inch cubes. For this recipe, traditionally both the egg plants and potatoes need to be deep fried. However, you can shallow fry, air fry them or sauté them until the eggplants are slight cooked and firm and the potatoes are cooked as well. Make sure they are not mushy and their shape is still intact. I have deep fried them here since I made it traditionally. Once fried set them aside.
Cook
  1. Then in a heavy bottom pot on medium heat add oil. Further add in cloves, whole dried red chili, black cardamom pod, and cumin seeds.
  2. When the cumin seeds splutter add in Kashmiri red chili powder in the oil and stir well. Then after about 15 seconds add in 1/2 cup water. This step is key to prevent the red chili from burning.
  3. Further add in the potatoes, and stir. Add in ground turmeric, ground ginger, ground fennel powder, ground cumin, and salt, and stir well. Finally add in 2 cups remaning water. Mix well and let the water come to boil. Once the water boils add in egg plants and let the potatoes and eggplants soak in some spices for about 2 to 3 minutes. Top off with green chillies. Turn off heat..don't overcook as they will get mushy.
  4. Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy with white rice.

Notes

For air frying, first, grease the air fryer basket with oil. I grease mine by rubbing, brushing, or spraying, a little bit of oil on the bottom grate. When working in batches, place the potatoes in a single layer. Air Fry the potatoes at 400°F for 10- 15 minutes. Shake the basket every 5 minutes.
For sautéing, you can add some oil in a separate pot and shallow fry the potatoes, and eggplants until egg plants and brown, and potatoes are mostly cooked.
On a scale to 1 to 5, I would place this dish at 3 in terms of spice level with 5 being high and 1 being low. Feel free to adjust the Kashmiri chili powder accordingly.