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 Thursday at 02:23 AM 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!

[Katie Meadow]

My favorite ways to eat eggplant: eggplant parm, eggplant tempura. eggplant in a sabich sandwich and babaganouj. I really should think about using it in Chinese stir-fries.

Edited yesterday at 03:48 AM by Katie Meadow (log)

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

My favorite ways to eat eggplant: eggplant parm, eggplant tempura. eggplant in a sabich sandwich and babaganouj. I really should think about using it in Chinese stir-fries.

 

I've never heard of sabich sandwich until now. i looked it up elsewhere, but would love an elaboration from you if you make it.

[Katie Meadow]

@Smithy, it's Israeli street food, essentially, a great sandwich. Eggplant slices get sautéed in batter as for Eggplant Parm. The slices get layered, warm, into a split pita with a cucumber-tomato chopped salad, a tahini dressing, zhoug (hot green chile sauce) and amba, which is a mango pickle. Also often added to taste: Israeli pickles and chopped hard boiled egg. Yes I make it once in a while but pulling together all the ingredients is a project. So, it's a pita and a PITA. Really delicious, though.

[SLB]

It certainly sounds delicious.  I see it in my future.

[TdeV]

@Smithy, my plan was Sultan's Delight (Hünkâr Beğendi).

I started with 3.5 lbs eggplant (4) which when roasted and collapsed turned into 1 1/2 cups. This still has all the seeds, and I did not pick out every tiny piece of black skin.

Do you recommend I pick out the tiny bits of skin? Do you recommend that I run the substance through the food mill (to remove seeds)?

Mine is dark green. Next time I'll have to see if I can keep it whiter.

TIA.

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, TdeV said:

@Smithy, my plan was Sultan's Delight (Hünkâr Beğendi).

I started with 3.5 lbs eggplant (4) which when roasted and collapsed turned into 1 1/2 cups. This still has all the seeds, and I did not pick out every tiny piece of black skin.

Do you recommend I pick out the tiny bits of skin? Do you recommend that I run the substance through the food mill (to remove seeds)?

Mine is dark green. Next time I'll have to see if I can keep it whiter.

TIA.

 

I wouldn't bother picking out every bit of blackened skin. The easy stuff, yes. But when it's little tiny pieces, I wouldn't bother. If it turns out to be a bit too charred in flavor, you'll know for next time. (Ask me how I know. 😀 )

 

In my experience the seeds can be a bit bothersome, but I generally satisfy myself with pulling out the seed packets, if you will: rather like pouches of fish roe, you can pull out the packets of seeds and get most of it. 80%? 90%? They can add an unpleasant texture if they're overwhelming, but a few here and there aren't a big deal.

 

There's supposedly an art to figuring out which eggplants have heavy seed loads and which don't. I've never figured it out.

[Tropicalsenior]

4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

But when it's little tiny pieces, I wouldn't bother

If anyone points it out she can just say it's coarse ground pepper.

[liuzhou]

Today, to amuse myself and hopefully any of you who have a sense of humour and wonder, I did some aubergine shopping. I never buy eggplants because they don't exist.

 

So, here are my purchases.

 

First up these green(ish) ones. I have included a regular chicken egg for scale. These are common across SE Asia and south-east China. They can be eaten raw, but I usually cook them.

 

 

Then these: They are tiny and can be quite (OK. very) bitter but I like bitter. My left hand for scale.

 

 

And finally my all-time favourite. The reason why certain people call them eggplants. White aubergines. Again common in SE Asia, especially Vietnam in my experience, but also here in the last year or two. Again they are about egg-sized or smaller.

 

 

The last image is from my shopping app. They haven't arrived from Yunnan yet. On track for tomorrow.

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

White aubergines. Again common in SE Asia,

Interesting to know. We used to go to the Orchid shows here in Costa Rica and there was always someone there selling plants and they had these plants with the little white eggs. We asked if they were edible and they always said no that they were just ornamental. Now I'm sorry that I never bought one.

[liuzhou]

20 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Interesting to know. We used to go to the Orchid shows here in Costa Rica and there was always someone there selling plants and they had these plants with the little white eggs. We asked if they were edible and they always said no that they were just ornamental. Now I'm sorry that I never bought one.

 

They may not have been the same plant.

 

Here (centre) are some white eggplants in a market in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, Vietnam with chicken eggs in front of them.

 

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

14 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

I wouldn't bother picking out every bit of blackened skin. The easy stuff, yes. But when it's little tiny pieces, I wouldn't bother. If it turns out to be a bit too charred in flavor, you'll know for next time. (Ask me how I know. 😀 )

 

In my experience the seeds can be a bit bothersome, but I generally satisfy myself with pulling out the seed packets, if you will: rather like pouches of fish roe, you can pull out the packets of seeds and get most of it. 80%? 90%? They can add an unpleasant texture if they're overwhelming, but a few here and there aren't a big deal.

 

There's supposedly an art to figuring out which eggplants have heavy seed loads and which don't. I've never figured it out.

Me neither. I just assume seed numbers are just the luck of the draw. As for charred skin, when we make babaganouj we cook the eggplants outdoors on the grill until very well charred. If some flakes of blackened smoky skin get into the final mix, so much the better.