Bowling Ball Eggplant/Aubergine

[liuzhou]

There is an almost prehistoric eggplant/aubergine topic (which I have been through), but my question is a little specific, so I hope this will be allowed to stand free, art least fora while.

 

I had no intention of buying an eggplant today. I am fairly clear in my mind about today's and tomorrow's menus, but I couldn't resist this beauty.

 

 

It took me a few seconds to work out what it was. Yes it's an eggplant or, as I prefer, an aubergine. It weighs 543 grams and is approx 13cm in diameter.

 

Normally, we only get the long thin Asian type here. I've never seen these "bowling balls" before and neither had other shoppers in the supermarket. They became the centre of attention.

So, now I'm trying to think what to do with it. I know many ways to deal with the "regular" kind and I've used the tiny Thai variety as well as the white ones.

 

I'd like, if possible to preserve its shape, but can't think how. I thought of roasting it, but worry it will sink into a well of shapelessness.

 

Any suggestions?

 

[jmacnaughtan]

I like those.  I'm not sure how you'd going about preserving the shape, unless you wanted to slice a "steak" out of it and prepare it whole.  Recently, I've been tempted to do that myself - brown it off in butter, then braise it in stock.  With any luck, you could preserve some of the texture.

 

What I frequently enjoy doing is slicing it (whole) quite thinly, frying off the slices and layering them with equally finely sliced tomatoes.  Bake slowly for a couple of hours, then top with breadcrumbs fried with... whatever you want, really.  Bacon is good.

[BonVivant]

Look up "melanzane ripiene", Sicilian stuffed aubergine. This way it will keep its shape.

 

Love aubergine! I like mine with lamb mince.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sartoric]

There's an Indian dish I've made with round eggplants about tennis ball size. You cut them from bottom to stem twice to make an x shaped opening to stuff with a mix including crushed peanuts, fried onion, garlic, ginger and ground spices, then simmer in a tomato type sauce.  The Indian eggplants are usually striped white and purple, but it would work as well with yours I guess. It was like this one...http://indianhealthyrecipes.com/gutti-vankaya-kura-enne-badanekai-recipe/

[Lisa Shock]

Eggplant Parmesan is simply breaded (with cheese and breadcrumbs) cutlets which are then fried and served with maybe a little pasta and red sauce on the side. (there's also a casserole dish where the cutlets are fried then layered in a casserole dish with sauce and the whole thing is topped with mozzarella)

[liuzhou]

OK. I finally got round to dealing with half my bowling ball.

 

I made a paste of turmeric, salt, ground chili and oil (rice bran), scored the flesh of the eggplant in diamond shapes then rubbed the paste into the cuts.

 

Roasted at 220ºC (428ºF, I'm told) for an hour. Spooned out the melting delicious flesh and served it on the side with a chicken curry.

 

More than happy with the results  - and it kept it's shape.

 

Ready for the oven

 

Done

 

[kayb]

They're really good cooked in that fashion with a honey-miso glaze, too.