Baingan Bharta (Eggplant Curry)

I haven't done Indian in a while and googled "Eggplant Curry".  Variations of this recipe popped up.  I'm skewing closest to this one from Allrecipes because I had a little plain yogurt in the fridge.  If you have one of those petite cans of coconut milk, you can turn this vegan.

I took into account the comments when creating portion sizes.  I also subbed in tomato paste instead of diced or canned tomato.  Every time I use fresh tomato in Indian cooking, I'm disappointed in the minimal flavor impact.  Tomato paste gives a bigger kick, and you're diluting it with the yogurt anyway.

The comments also talk about this being a not-quite-authentic recipe, but close enough.  It uses curry powder instead of garam masala, but that's what I have so I'm not complaining.  The yogurt isn't proper either.  It's still roughly what I had in mind when I started the search.

2 medium eggplant
2 Tb olive oil or ghee
1/2 tsp ground cumin or 1 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
*1 Tb ginger-garlic paste or 2 cloves of minced garlic and 1 tsp grated ginger
*2 tsp curry powder
*2 Tb tomato paste
1 jalapeño pepper, diced (optional)
1 tsp kosher salt
*1/2 C plain yogurt
*juice of 1 lemon
*cilantro for garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Slice caps off eggplant and cut in half longways.  Spray with pan spray or smear with oil and place cut side down on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet.  Bake about 30 minutes, until softened but not mushy.  Allow to cool slightly, peel, and roughly chop flesh.

2.  Preheat a large skillet with 2 Tb olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add cumin and curry powder and cook until fragrant.  Reduce heat to medium, add onion, and cook until it starts to soften, about 5 minutes.  Sidebar, the only onions at the market were red and sweet yellow.  Guess reopening restaurants wanted the brown/yellow.  I went with red because I was cooking it with a nightshade.  Decided to French it, but you can do any kind of slicing.

3.  Add ginger-garlic paste, salt, and tomato paste and stir into a fragrant, dry little mess.  Add eggplant and jalapeño, if using.  Bring to a simmer, then decide if the stew needs water.  I ended up adding about half a cup.

4.  Once eggplant is reheated through, stir in yogurt and lemon juice, then remove from heat.  My eggplant got mushy because I forgot how long it takes brown rice to cook and it simmered an extra 15 minutes.  Still tasted great.  Serve hot over rice or with naan and garnish with sprigs of cilantro.

Difficulty rating  π