Chokha - An Eggplant Chutney

On my last visit to Aamby Valley with my friends, we had an opportunity to invite the locals to cook food for us.  It was a wonderful evening, we sat in the patio, under the moonlight, enjoying the food. The local lit the fire and started to BBQ. In went the tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, and eggplant into the fire one by one. they kept tossing the roasted vegetables that we ate while we sipped on wine.  They also made Litti Chokha.

It was my first experience of eating this meal. Actually speaking, I have never been to Bihar, nor do I personally know somebody from the state Jharkhand or eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh. But Litti Chokha is the complete meal cooked in many households over open chulas. Litti Chokha is eaten with ghee and so I found it quite heavy, but sometimes its okay to indulgent.

Litti is rough wheat dough balls stuffed with spice mix of Gram flour or sattu, also roasted in open flame.

I would say Chokha is actually an eggplant chutney that is spicy and very tasty. It is normally made of  vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, onion, and eggplant that are roasted over open flame.

Garlic, salt, cumin powder, black pepper, lime juice are added for extra flavors. They used pure ghee to cook the whole meal, but I have tweaked a bit to my preference of Olive oil.

and No, I would not eat Litti, too heavy for me I enjoy it best with Bakhri roti, bread, lavash or any snack too The ingredients that I have used are 2 tomatoes 2 boiled potatoes 2 medium size onions 6 medium size eggplant 12 garlic pods 4 green chillies 1tsp red chilli powder 1tsp black chilli powder 1 tsp cumin powder Juice of half lime 2 tbsp olive oil.

Method

1. Roast tomatoes, boiled potatoes, onions and eggplant on an open flame.

2. Mash and mix together

3. Add Chillies, salt, cumin powder, red chilli powder, lime juice and coriander leaves.

4. add olive oil

5. Serve with toast or Bakhri roti

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