Of Pizzas and Marriages

“Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up.” said a wise man once  but this growing up happens, slowly and sometimes painfully. Opposites attract but what one forgets is that, they are Opposites to begin with. Every single time, for every single thing, for every single situation, my hubby and I head in opposite directions for no apparent reason. It just is natural for us to do. At least we are not loggerheads! Touch wood.

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.”— Leo Tolstoy

So during one such incompatible moment when hubby wanted a pizza on a weekend and I craved some  egg plant curry, we found we had reached the cul-de-sac. I am not the biggest fan of pizza and hubby is just short of being allergic to egg plants. For a moment it felt there was no solution in sight and we almost picked up the phone to order a pizza. Suddenly I remembered having seen a certain pizza that used egg plant curry and solution seemed to be in sight. I quickly browsed through Kankana’s Baigan Bhartha recipe and got down to work. I was happy working a pizza dough and while it rose in a warm place, I did my bit to get the Baigan Bhartha ( egg plant mash) ready. Smoked aubergine/ egg plants marinated in spices is the just thing to get my weekend rolling. Since I did not want to freak my hubby out with the mention of egg plants on a pizza, I kept mum until I had the piping hot spicy pizza out from the oven.

Needless to say, the pizza was a big hit and it did the best it could to satiate our cravings.

The Recipe for Baigan Bhartha Pizza

Adapted from Kankana’s Sunshineandsmile

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbs sugar

For the topping

• 2 medium sized eggplants
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 small onion, finely chopped
• 6-8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp chilly powder ( you can turn up the heat if you like by adding an extra tsp or two)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1-2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped for garnish
• Combination of mozzarella  and cheddar cheese
• salt
• pepper
• oil

Preparation

1. 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.

2. In another large bowl, combine flour, olive oil, salt and sugar.

3. Then, add the yeast mixture and mix it properly. Knead it for few minutes until its smooth and soft.

4. 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.

5. Cover it, keep it in a warm area and let it rise until it doubles in volume. This should take about an hour.

6. While the dough is rising, you can start working on the toppings.

7. Roasting the eggplants can be done either in the oven, stove top.

8. Pat dry the eggplants and brush some oil on it. Roast it until it soft and the skin starts to peel apart.

9. Let it cool before you start mashing it. After it cools down, peel the skin off the eggplant and put in a bowl.

10. Then, heat some oil in a pan and saute garlic and chopped onions.

11. Season with some salt and pepper, and once it’s translucent, add the tomatoes and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.

12. Add the roasted and mashed eggplant into this pan with the onion tomato mixture.

13. Add cumin powder, coriander powder, chilly flakes and mash it until it’s smooth. When the mixture is done, it will start to leave oil out on the sides.

14. Place  dough onto a well floured surface and roll out into a pizza crust shape.

15. In a baking pan, arrange the parchment paper and place the rolled pizza crust on it.

16. Top with the mashed eggplant mix and spread the mix evenly.

17. Grate some cheese on top and drizzle some oil.

18. Bake it at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until it’s slight brown and cooked through.

19. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

This pizza seems like a metaphor to all things that should be in a marriage. No marriage is perfect in my opinion because two imperfects cannot make a perfect like in Mathematics. But then I wouldn’t have it any other way since it is this imperfection that gives rise to immense choice and variety. This variety makes life so much more interesting.

We fought for the last crumb of this pizza and that made it worth my while.

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Tags: +, baigan, bhartha, egg plant, marriage, mash, partner, pizza, spicy, weekend