From breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner – I have to eat to much brinjal based dishes in this season, haha. I never expected that I would grow so many brinjal plants this winter and each one will be healthy. I have harvested 10 brinjals/eggplants a few days back. Now I am waiting for harvesting brinjals for the second time of this season. So menu is already prepared for the whole season, haha. Probably there will be atleast one brinjal based dishes almost everyday. Most people experience a lot of difficulties in growing brinjal due to attack of insects & disease. This plant is highly insects sensitive and attack a lot of insects. Almost every type of insects attack this plant and harm its overall growth. But still, I was able to manage those pests and protect my plants.
Last year, I grew 6 plants and learnt a lot of pest management of brinjal plants. So this year, I am growing 10 more plants and I also have 4 old plants from the last year.
I am using only organic pesticide to control pests/insects. There are many traditional pesticide for this purpose like Dasparni ark, agni astra, Brahmastra, neem astra etc. I am only using Dashparni Ark & neem oil as pesticide.
Many people say that neem oil does not work. Yes, it does not work if you use super diluted neem oil solution for spraying on plants. I prefer to use 15000 to 20000 ppm-ml of neem oil per litre. What does it mean? I mean if you have 1500 ppm neem oil then add min (15000 / 1500) ml or 10 ml neem oil per litre water or max (20000 / 1500) ml or 13.33 ml neem oil per litre water. Same way if you are using 10000 ppm (1%) then you need to add 1.5 ml neem oil per litre water. This is the rule what follow.
But most of the time people buy 300 ppm neem oil from the market and add only 5 ml to 1 litre water and spray on plants. So they can not expect any result of application of such pesticide. If you are using 300 ppm neem oil then you need to add 50 ml neem oil per litre water. Now you will say, oh it would be costly. Is it not true?
Apart from all, I use one organic pesticide Kaka every month for mites as well as other pests.
Apply 25% compost to the potting mix and then add handful compost every month and apply mustard cake liuid fertilizer every week.
Neem oil & Dashparni ark can protect plants from fungus too. But still, I spray buttermilk water (kept a copper wire in the buttermilk and storing for months) on my brinjal plants twice a month as fungicide.
But when you grow many brinjal plants in your kitchen garden then prepare a list of brinjal based dishes because each brinjal plants will produce plenty of brinjals for many months. Brinjal is the king of all vegetables. So it needs special care & nutrition rich soil. Then only you will get huge amount of brinjal that you will get tired to harvest those vegetables from your kitchen garden.
I have mentioned the way I am taking care of my plants. Now I am sharing the dishes what I will prepare and eat those fresh homegrown brinjals.
Bengali style lamba begun bhaja : I have 10 long purple brinjal plants. So certainly I will eat a lot of lamba begun bhaja this season. It used to be served at most traditional Bengali ceremony with rice & mug dal. I love such long brinjal fry.
Brinjal fritter (Beguni) : The most common & delicious Bengali fritter is begun which is prepared with brinjal. I love to eat such crispy beguni with murmure (muri) or khichdi or pulao or plain rice.
Baingan curry (Spicy) : I love this to have with roti. It is very easy to make and I can use my long purple brinjal to make this awesome dish.
Baingan ka bharta : Who does not like baingan ka bharta? When winter comes baingan ka bharta becomes more enjoyable and that is why most people prepare this to have with roti or paratha or plain rice. There are specific variety of brinjal which is called bharta baingan. But I will use my long purple brinjal to make this baingan ka bharta.
Begun bhaja with paratha : Bengali people love begun bhaja a lot. People love to have begun bhaja with dal & rice or roti or paratha. Begun bhaja & luchi are also favorite breakfast of many Bengali people. But most people use big size brinjal for making this begun bhaja. Though there are many people like me who still prefer lamba begun (long purple brinjal) bhaja to have with dal & rice.
Bengali style begun pora : Well, it is not like baingan bharta. You need to cook roasted brinjal to make baingan bharta. But begun pora is different because here roasted brinjal ae just mashed with some spices and served with rice or roti. So you do not need to cook further. Bengali people enjoy it very much.
Banglar special tel begun : Did you ever try tel begun. It is very delicious. I love it. Infact many people in West Bengal as well as Bangladesh love this dish so much. It is enjoyable to have with rice as well as roti.
Mixed veg curry : It is another great option to eat plenty of brinjal along with other vegetables. There many versions in mixed veg curry. You can make spicy mix veg curry whereas in Bengal, many people love niramish (without onion & garlic) mixed veg curry popularly known as labra.
So these are the dishes what I want to make to consume all of my homegrown brinjals. Apart from 11 long purple brinjal plants, I have 3 brinjal plants which are producing green colored oval shaped brinjal which are best for begun bhaja & baingan bharta or begun pora. Fish lovers can also add small pieces of brinjal to make it tastier. Did you ever try it. Many Bengali people love such fish curry.
So if you are planning to grow brinjal/eggplants in your own garden then do not forget to make a list of dishes where you can use your homegrown brinjal because each & every healthy brinjal plants can produce plenty of brinjals what you can not imagine.
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