Baigan choka
Aubergine roasted over an open flame then mashed with slivers of garlic, onion and chadon beni, finished with smoking hot oil.
Photo : FoodPlate · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 40 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Cut a long slit down each aubergine and push half the garlic slivers into the openings.
- Set the aubergines over a gas flame or on a barbecue and turn them for 20 minutes, until the skin blackens and the flesh gives under your finger.
- Let them cool, split them open and scrape the flesh out with a spoon, leaving the burnt skin behind.
- Mash the flesh on a board with the onion, salt and lime juice. Keep some texture rather than working it to a purée.
- Heat the oil in a small pan with the remaining garlic and the chopped chilli, until the garlic turns golden.
- Pour that hot oil over the aubergine so it hisses. Stir it through and fold in the chopped chadon beni.
In Trinidad choka means any vegetable roasted in embers and then crushed, a technique brought by indentured Indian workers in the 19th century. The oil poured over at the end cooks the raw garlic and drives its scent into the flesh.
