This Month’s Film: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Cuisine: Indian

In my search for Indian vegetable recipes for this month’s ‘Lagaan’ menu, this dish instantly appealed to me. Asian eggplants, tender, slender and sweet, scooped and stuffed with a medley of fresh minced vegetables and mint, crusted with a chickpea batter. Talk about a fresh departure from your garden variety peas n’ carrots.

Sound complicated? Amazingly, it’s anything but. The stuffing is nothing more than a little slice and dice, followed by a simple saute. And although chickpea flour, also known as besan, may be hard to come by, it has a marvelously silky texture that lends itself perfectly to pan-fried batters. My guess is that if you don’t have an Asian market nearby, you can probably find chickpea flour at your local health food store. Well worth going the extra mile to find it.

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