roasted eggplant curry

last night i made baingan bharta, which is roasted eggplant curry, and it was AMAZING.  i order this in restaurants sometimes, and i'm telling you: what i made was restaurant-quality.  mark bittman, you did not let me down!

i've been intimidated by making indian food at home because it seems like it requires a lot of spices…but this recipe only requires turmeric (which i bought recently for a different recipe) and garam masala, which whole foods had.  and man - using all the spices makes a difference.  i sometimes just omit one if i don't want to buy it.  do not do that if you make this recipe!

i warn you that this curry never looks good (even in restaurants), because roasted eggplant is grey…but trust me: it was incredible.  add some rice and a piece of naan (thank you, trader joe's frozen foods section) and you have a perfect meal.