Aubergine fritters / Beguni

Beguni/ Aubergine Fritters 

A Classic Bengali Snack 

Its a mad, mad day. Swamped with work I am trying to juggle work with designing my blog while two hungry cats with their ever growing appetite demands attention . I felt tired and at the same time excited. Why excited you ask? Tomorrow is Kali Puja. Now Diwali is most often celebrated a day after Kali Puja. In Bengal we are born feminists and so most of our religious celebrations center around Goddesses. Now, I might not care too much about the religious part but a festive day means working my mind at the recipes to be cooked the next day and then came the lovely afternoon hours. The sun was kissing goodbye and my cats were howling when I realized I need a strong cup of coffee, and then when you have your father back from a surgery demanding delicious meals you cannot but oblige.

While my coffee brewed I sliced my aubergines. Here there is a catch, the thinner you slice them , the crunchier it would be and the less time it would take for frying. Use a bit of salt for taste.The secret to my extra crunchy beguni 'muchmuche beguni' is Ssshhh keep reading please.

When you make the batter , remember it has to be a bit thinner than the thick dropping consistency because thick batter renders  a thick coating which is not acceptable to us Bengalis and if the batter is thick your fritters won't be crunchy .

So all you do next is to fry them in Mustard oil. You can always use refined oil but then there will a lack of the special flavour that mustard oil adds.

Ingredients 

Aubergines sliced thinly and longitudinally
salt and turmeric  to be smeared on the aubergines

For the batter  I used 

The cups hold 210ml water

3/4th cup chickpea flour/besan
1/4th cup rice flour
Salt as per taste
A tiny bit of turmeric
Pinch of nigella seeds
2 tbsp raw mustard oil
More or less 1 cup of water

Mustard oil for frying

Simply slice the aubergine and marinate with salt and turmeric, In the meantime make a smooth batter out of besan, rice flour, mustard oil, nigella seeds, salt and turmeric . Add the dry ingredients bit by bit and a bit of water to make sure the batter is evenly mixed without lumps. Once you have a smooth batter heat the mustard oil and add a spoonful say 1 tbsp of the oil in your batter. This age old step yields crunchy fritters.

Heat mustard oil and dip the aubergine in the batter and fry on low heat till a golden colour on both sides. Turn it after a whole when frying. Enjoy with puffed  rice and a green chili with some hot tea or coffee.