Don't get alarmed by the name.. give me a chance to explain.
When I was working in Bangalore, every Friday, I and my friend had to work on this boring task of allocating resources to the projects. I am not going to go into a detailed explanation of the task but believe me when I say that for those few months, this was one hell of a friday job that made us go crazy at times.
This friend of mine loves pizza and almost every Friday, it was our lunch. There were two main reason for that - first, it's easy to eat pizza and work at the same time and second, it's Pizza! And since Arvind also loves pizza, we would eat it for dinner as well.
So, at times I ate pizza back to back to keep my friend and my husband (who was then my BF) happy 🙂
Well, that definitely didn't inspire me to make this Pizza, that's actually how I lost interest in Pizza!
Few weeks back, Arvind took me to this Indian Pizza restaurant near our house. He kept telling me I will enjoy the pizza variety out there as it's different and has very unique toppings. I was thinking how unique can it be.. right? Turns out, it was very interesting. It had every different kind of toppings from Indian cuisine, like 'Matar Paneer', 'Kachodi' and 'Bhel Puri' !
We ate a 'Palak Paneer Pizza' and a 'Baigan Bharta Pizza'. It had the perfect crust, flavorful topping and was super delicious. I would have never ever thought of baigan bharta on pizza.
In the beginning of the month, when Kulsum announced 'Yeast Dough' as Monthly Mingle theme, I was doubtful if any entry would go from my side. Yeast and I are just getting to know each other, still not in the good friend zone. For me, it's little spooky to knead the dough knowing the yeast is alive and in contact with your hand.
After some serious thought and few attempts, I must say yeast is fun to work with. They need some care and once you give that, they can rise the dough pretty high and nice. These little fellows need a lot of pampering and perfect temperature or they can die!
Kneading the soft dough was in-fact quite therapeutic and finally, I am getting to understand why people love baking breads at home.
I was not very sure how the pizza would turn out! Never really baked pizza at home and here I was trying out something with roasted eggplant as a topping. While clicking the pictures, I kept telling to myself 'we will see if it worthy enough to share' . Well, as it turned out, we were pretty happy with the taste. It was not as good as the one we ate in the restaurant but pretty good for first time.
I am not sure if it's worthy enough or not, but I had told my friends I will try to get out of the yeast phobia and I sure did. That's a pretty good reason for me to share this with you and Kulsum for the Monthy Mingle 🙂
Baigan Bharta (Roasted Mashed Eggplant) Pizza
Ingredients
For the pizza dough
- 1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (not hot!)
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tbs sugar
For the topping
- 1 big eggplant
- 2 to matoes (roughly chopped)
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 1 small onion (sliced in round shape)
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 jalapenos (sliced in round shape)
- 1 tbs chilly flakes
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 cup cilantro (chopped for garnish)
- sharp cheddar cheese (I used just a little bit of grated cheese on top)
- salt
- pepper
- oil
Instructions
- Mix yeast with the warm water in a small bowl. Cover it and let it stand until it looks creamy. This should take about 7 minutes.
- In another large bowl, combine flour, olive oil, salt and sugar.
- Then, add the yeast mixture and mix it properly. Knead it for few minutes until its smooth and soft.
- Take a glass bowl and grease it with some oil. Keep the dough in the bowl and brush some oil on top of the dough.
- Cover it, keep it in a warm area and let it rise until it doubles in volume. This should take about an hour.
- While the dough is rising, you can start working on the toppings.
- Roasting the eggplant can be done either in the oven, stove top or grill. I used stove top.
- Pat dry the eggplant and brush some oil on it. Roast it until it soft and the skin starts to peel apart.
- Let it cool before you start mashing it. After it cools down, peel the skin off the eggplant and put in a bowl.
- Then, heat some oil in a pan and saute garlic and chopped onions.
- Season with some salt and pepper, and once it's translucent, add the tomatoes and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
- Take it out from the pan and put in the mixing bowl with the roasted eggplant.
- Add cumin powder, chilly flakes and mash it until it's smooth.
- Place dough onto a well floured surface and roll out into a pizza crust shape. (Don't worry about the shape much, just make sure it's evenly rolled out)
- In a baking pan, arrange the parchment paper and place the rolled pizza crust on it.
- Top with with the mashed eggplant mix and spread the mix evenly.
- Arrange the sliced onions and jalapeno over the eggplant mix.
- Grate some cheese on top and drizzle some oil.
- Bake it at 450 F for about 15 minutes or until it's slight brown and cooked through.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve!
Nutrition
foodwanderings
Kankana, I am dying here. I would like a slice please the nail in my coffin was the scorched eggplant. I am famished!! the pics pop!
Kankana Saxena
Thanks everybody for your comments. I myself couldn't believe it's ever possible and it tastes really good.
Cilantro
Lovely and delicious looking homemade pizza! I too loose interest on dishes I have repeatedly. I would definitely want to try making them at home especially after seeing you knead the dough but my husband does not like Pizza.
Jana @ delectably mine
Wow, that looks so delicious. I eat homemade pizza quite a bit and am always looking for something new. This looks so interesting and unique I will have to try it.
Priyanka
Awesome idea....great innovation 🙂
U rock sis 😀
Suzi
Wow, that's what I say, I wish you lived near me, I am crazy about pizza and your photos are so inviting. Mmmm.
Suzi
Reem
Lovely!!! I just woke to this my dear Kankana, I can smell bharta from the pictures. Looked at that lovely charred baigan.... Simply Fabulous.
sally
Indian pizza sounds fantastic! I love the combination of flavors!
Soma
OMG this is fantastic!.. you won't believe but this wkend I made a tart (veggie) with roasted eggplant and sundried tomato spread:) Not just the baigan, but ur recipe is one rife too 🙂
sayantani
what an idea kankana. thats a videshi version of our roti aur baingan bharta...awesome clicks.
Rosa
That topping is amazing! I really love the idea... A yummy pizza.
Cheers,
Rosa
Nash at plateful
Just one word Kankana--AWESOME! Love the pizza, this flavor and your gorgeous shots. Especially the steamy shot, ah!
Joanne
I love turning non-pizza dishes into pizzas...i think it makes them that much better! This is definitely one tasty pizza!
REEMA
Delicious...
Sissi
Indian pizza sounds awesome! I have never heard about it, but yours looks so good, I start regretting there is no Indian Pizza restaurant in my city, only Italian 😉
I know, I should make it on my own, but somehow I feel it will not be as great as yours...
Sia
muaah... muaah... muaah... u have given me a reason to fall in love again with pizza 🙂 never in my wildest dreams i would have come up with baingan bharta pizza! i am intriguied to kw hw bhel puri pizza tastes!
Nami | Just One Cookbook
Indian pizza! I had my first Indian pizza at my Indian neighbor's daughter's birthday party. They bought Indian Pizza (I think it was from this famous place in Redwood City) and OMG... I had a huge craving for this pizza until next year's birthday! I requested the family they have to order Indian Pizza again! LOL. Your pizza looks fantastic! I can almost taste this. Great job on working on yeast. I'm going to work on it one day, when kids don't need me all the time. Maybe I'll ask you to come over and you can teach me? 😉 Great photos and gosh, now you started my craving for Indian pizza again! I'll go crazy for sure...
Kulsum at JourneyKitchen
awww awesome job Kanakana. I'm so glad it worked out for you and you could send your fab entry to Monthly mingle. Thank you!
Anita Menon
Looks so yummy. I love anything baigan.
The photos are just amazing-esp the one where the steam is emanating from the baigan.
hands working on the dough photos - Sexy.
Manu
Hehehehe an Indian Pizza place sounds awesome... it could be "my family restaurant"!!! LOL
Great job on that pizza dough! And baigan bharta... well, that's so flavoursome! I love it.
AND... that picture with the eggplant and the smoke coming out is AMAZING! How did you do it?????
Kankana Saxena
I know you will like that place for sure 🙂 And that eggplant photo .. well, had to click in like 3 minutes!