As the eggplants are cooling, heat the oil in the bottom of a large pot over a medium flame and add the onion. Stir frequently; if the onion starts to color, reduce the heat. When they are very limp and glassy looking (about 10 minutes later), add the jalapeno, ginger and garlic. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture starts to color and takes a pinkish tinge (another 5 minutes). Add the garam masala and stir to coat vegetables. When very aromatic, add the salt, tomato sauce, tomatoes and their juices, the chopped eggplant and 1/4 cup water.

Cook, covered, over a low flame for one hour, checking the bottom of the pot now and again to make sure it isn't burning. If mixture gets too pasty, add a splash of water. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 336 Calories; 28g Fat (70.2% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 3616mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 Vegetable; 5 1/2 Fat.

Several years ago an Indian woman from Bombay invited me to her apartment and treated me to a two-hour lesson in her style of vegetarian home cooking. Exotic spices did play an important role in her kitchen, but then so did more prosaic ingredients such as frozen chopped spinach and Hunt's tomato sauce. She kept atta, the fine-milled whole wheat flour, to make fresh roti flatbreads in her tava griddle for dinner every evening. But she substituted tofu for paneer, the fresh white cheese that can make so many Indian vegetables so fattening.

And this woman was absolutely maniacal about the proper way to cook onions. Despite her avowal of low-fat cookery, she started every dish with a healthy pour of vegetable oil and sauteed chopped onions for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes or however long it took to get them to the right stage before continuing the dish. The onions, she explained, needed enough oil to sizzle, not steam, and to cook through without browning. Sometimes she wanted the onions to be yellowish and glossy. Sometimes she took them further to the stage she called "pink," which meant they were just starting to color but not to brown.

Of all the dishes she taught me, the one that has become a part of my own repertoire is Baingan Bharta. This classic Indian Eggplant Curry starts with those pink onions, then adds plenty of smoky roasted eggplant, spice, hot pepper, ginger and garlic.

If you have a gas range, you can roast the eggplants over the flame. But even if you have an electric range, roast the eggplants right on the element. You will get that smoky undertone you can't get from baking the eggplants.

The other important step is to give the final mixture a full hour to simmer and meld its flavors. If you are Indian, you likely will have a pressure cooker to get the job done in 20 minutes. Otherwise, you have to wait.

And the only ingredient you'll need to search out in a good ethnic or farmers market is garam masala --- the mixture of toasted and ground cumin, cardamom, black pepper and sundry sweet spices. You'll soon find yourself reaching for it instead of curry powder in your cooking.