Eggplant/Aubergine

[liuzhou]

You might want to have a look at this.

 

Six of the best aubergine recipes

[rotuts]

personally , why bother ?

 

put your talent and energy into something that will actually taste good when you put it on your plate.

 

just saying.

[haresfur]

I have had success cutting it in cubes and roasting it with garlic in a clay pot on the grill while cooking meat so it catches some of the smoke. I usually peel it because the peel can make my mouth itch, unless it's had the shit cooked out of it.

[gulfporter]

I attribute bitterness in eggplant to undercooking.  I prefer frying eggplant (though I sometimes gas grill them) and I fry/grill until they are like custard on the inside.  Never bitter when cooked that hard.  

 

Too often recipes call for frying 1/2 inch slices for 'a 2 or 3 minutes' on each side.  Nope, much longer.  Until almost falling apart.  

 

I stopped ordering eggplant dishes in restaurants as they were bitter 80% of time, simply undercooked. 

[liuzhou]

I could take or leave aubergiine / eggplant* until I moved to China and discovered how they use it. Now it's a favourite. Two dishes stand out.

 

First, 肉末茄子 (ròu mò qié zi) and then the Sichuan classic 鱼香茄子 (yú xiāng qié zi).

 

The first is aubergine with minced pork**, Fuchsia Dunlop has a recipe in this Guardian article.

 

My take on 肉末茄子 (ròu mò qié zi)

 

and the second is often translated as 'fish-fragrant aubergine' but contains no fish. Instead it uses the ingredients often used to accompany fish. It is vegetarian. Fuchsia Dunlop has a recipe in her 'The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)' 

 

Fun fact: in Mandarin Chinese, 茄子 (qié zi) is what bad photographers ask their subjects to say, to produce the cheesy grins found in family photographs. It is the equivalent of the English 'Say cheese!'.

 

* As ivry fule noes, Aubergines taste much better than eggplants.

 

** Pork is the traditional choice, but any meat can be substituted.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[Smithy]

Those of you who think you dislike eggplant should try hunkar begendi, aka creamed eggplant. Start with charring eggplant over a fire / grill until it collapses; later, peel it and chunk it a little bit, then blend into a bechamel sauce and add cheese. Here's a very old post showing the process and results, although the post includes a lot of non-eggplant-related cookery and snapshots. I think even the most bitter eggplant (that is, old and large) would take well to this treatment.

 

If anyone's interested I'll post a more detailed recipe.

[TdeV]

13 hours ago, Smithy said:

If anyone's interested I'll post a more detailed recipe.

 

Yes, please!

[Smithy]

15 hours ago, Smithy said:

Those of you who think you dislike eggplant should try hunkar begendi, aka creamed eggplant. Start with charring eggplant over a fire / grill until it collapses; later, peel it and chunk it a little bit, then blend into a bechamel sauce and add cheese. Here's a very old post showing the process and results, although the post includes a lot of non-eggplant-related cookery and snapshots. I think even the most bitter eggplant (that is, old and large) would take well to this treatment.

 

If anyone's interested I'll post a more detailed recipe.

 

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

 

Yes, please!

 

This is paraphrased from my 1998 copy of Özcan Ozan's The Sultan's Kitchen, A Turkish Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) (The link is to the current Kindle edition). It's the Creamed Eggplant ("Beğendi") portion of the recipe for Sultan's Delight (Hünkâr Beğendi). The topping is lamb. Wonderful dish. I'll have to make it again sometime.

 

3 pounds globe eggplants (about 3 large)

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp salt

1/4 c (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 c milk

2 tbp heavy cream

4 oz kasseri cheese, grated (1/2 c)

 

Basically, you grill or broil the eggplants after pricking them all over with a knife or skewer. Turn them under or over the flame until they collapse. A bit of charring is good. You'll be surprised at just how much they collapse! (My notes say that you have to make sure they're really soft at each end as well as in their middles. I seem to remember that the ends were slower to collapse than the seedy centers.) When they are fully collapsed, pull them out someplace to cool enough to handle. 

 

While the eggplants are cooking, blend the lemon juice and salt in 3 cups of water. When the eggplants are cool enough to handle, peel them and put the pulp in the bowl of water for 10 minutes, to prevent discoloration. Then put the pulp in a strainer and press gently to get rid of excess water.

 

Meanwhile, make a white sauce with the butter, flour, milk and cream. (Warm the milk and cream before whisking it in.) Cook it until it's starting to thicken, then whisk in the eggplant and cheese. You'll be amazed at how the eggplant pulp melts into the sauce! I cut it into large chunks for ease of handling, but if it's soft enough you really don't need to.

 

I'm pretty sure I've used other cheeses than kasseri. 

 

The entire dish has a topping of chunked, braised lamb shoulder but you can eat it straight, or top it with some other stew of your choice. This post shows the entire process.

[TdeV]

And I just bought large shiny eggplants!