Assam Diary | Tit-Begun (Bitter Brinjal) and A Simple Stir-Fry Recipe

It's the haat-bar in the quaint little village Thaligram. We're enjoying our vacation in this village of Cachar (Assam) under the warmth and hospitality of our hosts. This is the first time I meet them (some distant relatives through my MIL), but as we stepped into their house I felt at home immediately. Will talk about these wonderful people later .... I would love to share my memories of this enriching vacation with you.

On the haat-bar local farmers come with their freshly picked produces to the small farmers' market and a good part of them are the tribal Khasi girls who come from the nearby Khasiapunji (land of the Khasi tribe) ...they are simple looking people with a cheerfuller face and sweet smile.

A Khasi woman on her way back from market

As we were strolling through the market we found that the most common produces they came with were paan, supari, wild turmeric and all sorts of banana products that either they grow in their villages or collect from nearby forests. There were some new stuffs as well ..... we found quite a few varieties of beans that I have never seen earlier. While looking at these new veggies we spotted a handful of  tiny tomato like things with one girl. On our query she smiled and spoke a few words in her local language. What we could gather from her that the fruits have been collected from joom farming of a nearby hill. We got interested and  feeling obliged by her charming smile Sanjit took whatever she had in her basket.....a generous fistful .... that's all she had.

On our query back home our Didimoni (sister) told that these are called tit-begun. So essentially these are miniature brinjals with a bitter taste. These are wild fruits and nobody seems much exited about it! My MIL then and there declared that she is not going to taste a bitter tasting brinjal (though she loves neem-begun which is essentially brinjal cooked with neem leaves to make it bitter :)). So we packed them in our luggage and when I finally got a chance to attend, they were more than a week old and beyond their prime time. All got red and crinkled ..... anyway we wanted to give it a try and decided to cook a simple stir-fry with onion- tomato-green chill to offset the otherwise bitter taste.

I googled a bit to find the English name, but got confused with one of its close cousin named cluster eggplant or turkey berry. I tasted turkey berry earlier (courtesy our Navadarshanam CSA box) and found them of much smaller size than this one. Found a web link where they have used the same botanical name (Solanum indica) to describe the fruit that looked like turkey berry(Solanum torvum) to me! HELP needed!
What I gathered (I may be wrong though) that in English it is called Likok or bitter brinjal, in Assamese tit-begun and in Sikkimese beeh .

A Simple Bitter-brinjal Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients:
Bitter Brinjal - Handful. sliced
Onion - One small, sliced
Tomato - One ripe, sliced
Green Chilli - one, chopped
Panchphoron - 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chilli - one
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt and Sugar - to taste



Method:
It is a very easy recipe...

• Just heat oil, temper it with the panchphoron and dry red chilli.
• Add the sliced onion with a pinch of salt and cook on low heat until lightly caramelized.
• Add the sliced brinjals, add little termeric and salt and cook covered until the brijals are soft.
• Add sliced tomatoes and green chillis and cook covered until tomatoes get cooked and little caramelized.
• Check the salt, add little sugar (optional) and cook uncovered until everything get mixed well. You may need to sprinkle little water if required.

That's it! Serve as a dry side dish with chapati or plain rice.

We liked the taste. The sweetness of caramelized onion, the tartness of tomato and the heat from green chili worked well to offset the bitter taste and to bring out a nice balance and colour. These brinjals were quite bitter when tested raw but that bitterness reduced a lot after cooking.
Well ... this bitter brinjal tasted almost like brinjal :) ..... not the soft and creamy variety that we get in Bengal, but like the small purple ones that we get here in Bangalore. But as the veggie almost crossed its prime time when I cooked it ..... I will need to wait for another chance before I can give a better feedback.

Did I tell you I had planted a few seeds and they have already sprouted :) ..... hoping for a second chance to try it from my own garden ....... life is fun!

Hello Babies!

Please note,
I got all confused with another variety of bitter brinjal called terkey berry when trying to gather some information about it. People have used the botanical name interchangeably for both the varieties. Please check here, here and here to get a bit confused enlightened :)

And please let me know if you know this veggie well and have some interesting recipe to try with!