Begun Khasi aka Mutton Aubergine is not a recipe of meat. Its just the aubergine cooked in a way that it taste almost like goat meat! This is what my mother used to cook and I guess this is the traditional recipe from her hometown.

For this recipe, we need thing long kind of aubergine (or Chinese Eggplant), but I have found only those in the picture. We also need all the spices that we use for cooking any kind of meat- for example, ginger garlic paste, onion and turmeric-cumin-coriander-chili powder. Only spice powder I have not used is gorom moshla powder but I have used whole bay leave, cinnamon and cardamom.

There’s a unique way to cut the aubergine for this recipe! First I cut them in 2inches long and then made a few slices on the both side like the picture. Make sure the slices are not all through from one side to another side.

Then I soaked all the aubergine in cold water for 10 minutes. This process help reducing them getting darker. Aubergines are like apples, if you leave them in the open air, they start to get brown.

After soaking the aubergine for 10 minutes, I drained the water and pat dry them very well. Next step would be to coat the aubergine with turmeric and salt and shallow fry them.

I took a big pan (where I cooked the whole meal later) and heated under medium temperature with vegetable oil. When oil gets pretty warm, add aubergine coated with spices and fry them until they start to change color. However, we don’t need to fry them completely, as they will start to break plus we will cook them once again. So we just need to shallow fry them for few minutes.

As you can see them in the picture, aubergine are pretty intact even after frying. You can skip the step but I have realized that frying aubergine before cooking them increases the taste like thousand time.

Now its time to make the gravy for the dish. In the same pan where I fried aubergine, I heated the oil first and added sliced onion and cooked until they are slightly golden.

When onions were ready, I added ginger and garlic paste and cooked for few seconds. Finally I added all the ground spices and kept cooking.

After adding all ground spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander and chili), I added 50ml water to the pan. Water will aid in cooking the spices and release the raw smell. After few minutes of cooking in medium low heat, the spices will release oil (next photo). It means that your gravy is ready.

So, now its time to add the fried aubergine. I carefully added them and turned them a bit to cook in the gravy for a minute or so.

Then I added about 150ml water (or more if you want more sauce) and then cover the pot with a lid. I let the aubergine cook for about 10 minutes in medium heat. Please note that I did not stir them in between.

After 10 minutes of cooking the aubergine in medium heat, I have open the lid and checked of they are cooked. You can see in the picture that there are still water bubbles coming out in the first photo. So I let them cook without lid for few more minutes. As you can see in the second photo above, the curry is releasing oil now.

The aubergine goat is almost done. Finally I added bay leaf, cinnamon and cardamom spices to the gravy. However I realized for the better result, I should have add them first directly in the oil.

Serve the Begun Khasi with rice or hand made ruti!

Recipe: 4 Serving Prepping time: 12 minutes, Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: Vegetables 3 Chinese Aubergine Spice and Condiments 40ml Vegetable Oil 1tbs fine Salt 1tsp Turmeric powder 1tsp Coriander powder 1tsp Cumin powder 1tsp Chili powder 1tsp Ginger Paste (or Ginger powder) 1tsp Garlic Paste (or Garlic powder)

Instruction 1. Wash aubergines and cut 2 inches long. Then make few slices on the both sides. Soak the aubergine in cold water for 10 minutes. 2. Drain water and pat dry the aubergines. Then coat with turmeric powder and salt. 3. Heat 2 table spoon of oil in a wok or skillet. Shallow fry aubergine until they are golden. Set them aside. 4. Add sliced onion in the same pan and let them cook until they are golden. Then add garlic and ginger paste. Cook for few seconds and add turmeric, chili, cumin and coriander powder. Let the spices cook for 5 minutes (or up until the oil starts to separate and float). 5. Add fried aubergine, salt and give them a light stir until they are mixed well with cooked spice. Add 150ml water, cover and let them cook for 10 minutes. 6. Simmer curry til the gravy is in desired consistency. Check salt and add more if needed.