Another wanga recipe! This is my current favorite food to drool over, but I don’t see myself making it. Officially, it’s because I hate cleaning the stove. Unofficially, it’s because fire is scary. I call it “wanga bharit”. Pronounced “buh-wreath.” I’m probably pronouncing it wrong. Maybe just call it fire eggplant.
Wanga means eggplant.
Ingredients
- One eggplant. Pick one with a green stem. A brown stem means it’s gone meh. It should be firm. Not soft or not hard like a rock.
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
- A small, sweet onion
- a sprig or two of cilantro
- a hot pepper to your taste
- salt to taste
- no fear of fire
Directions
1. Chop the onion, garlic, hot pepper and cilantro as finely as you can.
Chopped ingredients. So pretty.
2. Wash the eggplant.
3. Pluck up your courage.
4. Turn on the stove.
5. Put the eggplant directly on the flame.
6. Let cook for a few minutes.
7. Gather more courage.
8. Shift the eggplant periodically over the flame so that it’s cooked everywhere. My mom uses her hand. Tongs are a reasonable option. You probably need less courage with the tongs.
9. Keep cooking and shifting. Maybe 15 minutes total.
Wanga cooking on the flame.
10. Take off the flame when fully cooked and let it cool a bit on a plate.
Charred wanga
11. Cut the eggplant open. Run the knife through it a few times. Cut off the stem.
Inside of the charred wanga. I clearly just love saying wanga.
12. If the seeds are black or if there are just too many of them, feel free to scrape them out. If the seeds are white and tender, they’re pretty delicious. Don’t scrape that out.
13. You can also scrape off some or all of the charred skin if you’d like.
14. Pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil.
15. Mash the eggplant. I use my hands.
16. Add in the ingredients you chopped from the first step and the salt.
17. Mix everything well. With your hands or a fork. Whatever.
18. Drool.
Wanga bharit!
We eat this with an indian bread (pori or puri or naan). Maybe some yogurt. Some thecha if the hot pepper proved too mild. I found another picture of this in my phone from another day. So yum.
More wanga bharit.
Brush your teeth if you’re going out after eating this. Remember, you just ate raw onion and garlic.
Acceptable Alternatives
- You can use cayenne pepper if you don’t have any fresh hot peppers.
- You can cook the eggplant in the microwave. Poke a few holes in it, wrap in a paper towel and microwave for 3-4 minutes each side. You don’t get the flame taste that way which makes it’s a very poor substitute in my opinion.
- You can grill it on a grill instead of the stove.
- You can broil it. I don’t really know how that works.
to continue to bang the ‘whisky drenched’ drum: this would be much more interesting if marinated in…
(take it outside to the grill!)
Whiskey drenched wanga. Sounds….interesting. 🙂 I’ve never grilled personally, but I think it’s the same thing as the stove, no?
to a grilling connoisseur- heresy! “opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted”
grilling is art, not the focused application of heat via kitchen appliance.
A splash of whisky applied (judiciously) makes for a great show!
PS: pairing indian food with whisky is apparently all the rage in the UK… Kheer anyone?
PPS: kheer, a creamy, cardamom-flavoured rice pudding. Try pairing it with Glenlivet.
hehe. I have the recipe for kheer on here somewhere.
YUM!!! keep posting recipes I love it!
looks delicious.
I totally zone out when I eat this. This is too good.
The recipe I have is including some meti (fenugreek) seeds. Did you try that ever?
My mom loves putting fenugreek seeds in stuff, so I’m surprised she hasn’t tried that! It’s on my list of things to attempt. Thanks for the suggestion!
To enjoy the buh-wreath without a messy stove, I place an aluminium foil in the empty space around the ring of the stove but under the iron holders. Just need to cut a ring-wide hole in a square piece of the aluminium foil.
brilliant!