The best recipes, in my opinion, come from a mother’s memory. And she is also undoubtedly the best cook in the whole wide world. Little wonder then that I started off my culinary lessons under my mother’s loving and watchful eye.

I happened to mention this to Kamini during our conversation that I’ve shared a few days ago. With the Kitchen Therapy girl sharing the same emotions, it was no pressure to ask her to share a recipe that she has been taught by her mother. She gladly handed over the recipe of a Persian dish called Kashke Badamjan that was taught to her mother by her grandmother!

I made this dish for the parents and they loved it! I could only sit and give it mournful soulful glances, being allergic to the eggplant.

In Kamini’s words…

“My Mother’s Kashke Badamjan Recipe

This recipe is passed down to my mother from my Dadima (grandmother), who spent many years in Iran. This recipe has been adapted several times depending on which city we are in – the quality and type of ingredients vary everywhere.

This recipe I share with you suits the local Indian ingredients. For example, Indian eggplants have plenty of seeds and the skin is tough to eat – hence we roast the entire eggplant on an open flame, let cool and gently peel off the skin before mashing down and sautéing; this also helps to avoid using excess oil and frying. I use hung Amul dahi or an Indian brand of Greek yoghurt in place of the traditional ‘kashk’.

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Kashke Badamjan

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

The Persian dish adapted to an Indian palette, this is perfect as a side dish or a meal.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Persian-Indian

Servings: 1 bowl

Author: Kamini Patel

Ingredients

• 3 Bharta eggplants (medium size)
• 2 tsp Garlic (minced)
• 1 tbsp Water
• 1 tsp Olive oil
• 1 Onion (large size, chopped)
• ¼ cup Walnuts
• 90 g Hung yogurt / Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper
• ½ tbsp Dried mint
• Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Roast the eggplants on an open flame.
2. Let the eggplants cool completely before peeling off the skin.
3. While the eggplants are cooling, sauté the onions with ½ tsp salt in a non-stick pan with ½ tbsp olive oil.
4. In a food processor, pulse down the walnuts until you achieve a coarse crumb (careful not to pulse too much into a paste). Place this crumb into the serving dish.
5. When the onions are cooked through, add them into the serving dish with walnuts and stir in the dried mint.

6. Once the eggplant has cooled, roughly chop the flesh and add into the same non-stick pan. Add the garlic and remaining salt and sauté, keeping a careful eye to not burn. Halfway through, add the water. 

7. Once the eggplant is cooked through, gently mash with the back of a fork in the pan itself. 

8. Remove from pan and pour onto the onion and walnut mixture on your serving dish.

9. Stir in the yoghurt and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
10. Garnish with walnut pieces.

Recipe Notes

• Do not use fresh mint in place of dried mint.

Pop into Kamini’s kitchen on her Youtube show on IFN Vegetarian and don’t forget to stop by her website Kitchen Therapy for some lovely recipes. You can follow her on Facebook and her Instagram handle is @kitchentherapyindian

Photos: Provided by Kitchen Therapy