Banarasi Kalonji Baingan – Stuffed Aubergine Fry

This famous Banarasi dish is an explosion of spicy and tangy flavours, made by stuffing baby eggplants (baingan/aubergine) with a medley of pickling spices and then frying in mustard oil tempered with Indian five spice (paanch phoron).

Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity.

~Jonathan Safran Foer