Eggplants and Aubergines

[Alisond]

The variety I am speaking of is 4-7 inches long, about inch in diameter. These are less bitter than the big ones.

[infernooo]

Thanks for the suggestions Russ! I have been looking at a way to have eggplant for some time where it is not fried... when you think about it, eggplant when cooked 99% of the time is slathered in oil and that is all you end up tasting - the "fried taste" (besides baba ganoush). (or if you grill it you have to brush it with so much oil to stop it drying out looking like a piece of cardboard that you pretty much end up grill-frying it).

[Cookwithlove]

Egg plant/Aubergine is commonly stuffed in Mediteranean cuisine.

A malay dish called "Terong Belado" is egg plant deep fry in oil and top with a sambal.

A sambal is a spicy items using lots of onion, chilli paste,garlic,shallot,lemon grass, belachan, sugar and tamarind water.

[Khadija]

I love eggplants of different varieties, and in different preparations.

I often use cubed, fried eggplant to "season" dishes. I often made a dish as follows:

1. Cube, eggplant and fry in plenty of oil. Drain well. Salt. Set aside. (I like sweeter eggplants for this, so I often use Japanese eggplants.)

2. Cube firm tofu and fry the hell out of it -- until it becomes hard and dry -- in plenty of oil. Drain well. Salt.

3. Fry some garlic and chili in a sauce pan.

4. Add eggplant and tofu, along with some chicken stock. Cook, adding liquid as needed, until tofu is no longer hard and dry and is coated with eggplant sauce.

5. Finish with lime juice and cilantro (optional).

Eat with rice or rolled up in lettuce leaves.

Recently, I have developed a minor obsession with the "eggplant cutlet" recipe in recipegullet. It is one of the few versions of something baked, rather than fried, that I think is better baked.

[Carlovski]

Steaming - I would never have thought off that, in fact I would have swore it would produce something completely inedible. I'll give it a go - maybe in conjunction with making 'fish-fragrant' aubergine, should cut down on the gallons of oil it normally needs - tasty but not too healthy!

[Milagai]

I love eggplants of different varieties, and in different preparations.

I often use cubed, fried eggplant to "season" dishes.  I often made a dish as follows:

1.  Cube, eggplant and fry in plenty of oil.  Drain well.  Salt.  Set aside.  (I like sweeter eggplants for this, so I often use Japanese eggplants.)

2.  Cube firm tofu and fry the hell out of it -- until it becomes hard and dry -- in plenty of oil.  Drain well.  Salt.

3.  Fry some garlic and chili in a sauce pan.

4.  Add eggplant and tofu, along with some chicken stock.  Cook, adding liquid as needed, until tofu is no longer hard and dry and is coated with eggplant sauce.

5.  Finish with lime juice and cilantro (optional).

Eat with rice or rolled up in lettuce leaves.

Recently, I have developed a minor obsession with the "eggplant cutlet" recipe in recipegullet.  It is one of the few versions of something baked, rather than fried, that I think is better baked.

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Your recipe sounds great and I must try this (with veg stock);

and must check out the eggplant cutlet too...

Re your recipe above, a product available here that I love is

Nasoya Super Firm Tofu, cubed! It's already cubed

and the results are great when you drain it, pat it dry,

and put it in the toaster oven.

The cubes brown up beautifully....

I'll try your recipe above and see....

Milagai

[russ parsons]

ahem: i do feel obliged to admonish that eggplants are a late summer ingredient. so unless you're in teh southern hemisphere, naughty naughty.

[dario]

g'day,

there are 3 ways I like to cook my eggplants:

a) breaded eggplants

1) cut them in round slices,

2) dredge them in flour, egg and bread crumbs,

3) fry them in oil till golden/brown.

Serve hot or cold, they are equally good (sensational when served with a home made tomato sauce).

b) paprika

1) cube eggplants,

2) slice capsicums (bell pepper),

3) slice onion,

4) heat oil and stew the onion in it till tender,

5) add eggplants and capsicum and cook, stirring often, for a few minutes,

6) add tomatoes in pieces and continue cooking till the vegetables are tender.

Note: you can also include sliced zucchini to this dish.

c) eggplants in oil

1) shred the eggplants and place them in a bowl,

2) sprinkle with salt and leave them in the bowl for 24 hours,

3) squeeze the eggplants with your hands to remove all their water,

4) put them back in the bowl, cover them a good quality white wine vinegar and leave them in it for 24 hour,

5) drain and squeeze the eggplants to remove as much vinegar as possible,

6) place the eggplants in glass jars, cover them with oil and leave them for a couple of days before using.

Note: if to taste, you can add garlic and other spices to the jars.

Dario

[plk]

Eggplants also make a nice vegetarian katsu. What I do is:

*Peel

*Slice into "steak" rounds

*Salt, let sit to leach some water

*Bread, using panko crumbs (seasoned w/salt and pepper) for the outer layer

*Fry quickly until brown

*Check interior for doneness; if not done, finish in oven

Serve over rice and shreaded cabbage, with accompanying tonkatsu sauce. Tonkatsu sauce is usually some variation of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce blended together.

[Gruzia]

I love eggplants! Maybe because eggplants are used often in Georgian cuisine so I grew up eating them.

One of my favorite Georgian dishes is eggplant sliced thinly (about quarter inch) lengthwise, fried, then layered with thinly sliced raw onions (blanched if not a big raw onion fan) and a sauce made out of ground walnuts, cilantro and garlic (mashed to smooth paste in mortar)....let stand in the fridge overnight and enjoy the next day! Of course if you are impatient, as I am, just slather on some of the sauce on the freshly fried eggplant slices, roll 'em up, and enjoy

[KatieLoeb]

One of the best eggplant preparations I've had lately was a recipe given to me by a coworker. It's called Eggplant Kuku and is a Persian Garlic-Lemon Eggplant souffle. It's absolutely delicious and farily easy to make. It even reheated just fine in the microwave on medium power. A great side dish.

[nduran]

There was a recipe for eggplant chips in a recent issue of Gourmet that was pretty good, and I also like cutting them in big slabs and grilling them with a spicy tequila lime glaze. Slap them on a toasted hamburger bun with some sauteed mushrooms and a fresh onion ring and call it a day.

[Carlovski]

ahem: i do feel obliged to admonish that eggplants are a late summer ingredient. so unless you're in teh southern hemisphere, naughty naughty.

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I know - I did mention this in the original post. I try and keep my food miles down but it's around this time of year you get a little tired of cabbages and root vegetables, especially as we have had a couple of bright sunny days this week.

[Carlovski]

One of the best eggplant preparations I've had lately was a recipe given to me by a coworker.  It's called Eggplant Kuku and is a Persian Garlic-Lemon Eggplant souffle.  It's absolutely delicious and farily easy to make.  It even reheated just fine in the microwave on medium power.  A great side dish.

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That sounds great - I don't normally brave souffles but it seems fairly straightforward.

P.S I like the comment someone left on the recipe - "I added 1pound of ground beef (fried with tomato paste) into the mixture"

[KatieLoeb]

I agree. I don't normally fuss with souffle either, but this one was so easy I decided to give it a go. It was worth it. It's almost like a light and airy baba ghanoush.

The idea of mixing some protein in sounds pretty good too. I'd probably vote for ground lamb to keep it more authentic.

Let us know if you try this and what your results are.

[Milagai]

ahem: i do feel obliged to admonish that eggplants are a late summer ingredient. so unless you're in teh southern hemisphere, naughty naughty.

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I know - I did mention this in the original post. I try and keep my food miles down but it's around this time of year you get a little tired of cabbages and root vegetables, especially as we have had a couple of bright sunny days this week.

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In my grocery (big chain) store today,

lo and behold, large purple eggplants labeled

Produce of USA on sale at 99c / lb....

Hothouse? Other explanations?

Milagai

[C. sapidus]

I have many favorite eggplant/aubergine recipes: fish-fragrant eggplant from Land of Plenty; makhua oop (“best eggplant dish ever”) from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet; and broiled/grilled eggplant with rosemary, garlic, and olive oil from Marcella Hazan. Asian Week (click) has plausible-looking recipes for the first two.

Mrs. C makes an addictive babaganouj. It must be fairly labor-intensive because she hasn’t made it for a long time even though I drop regular hints about how much I like it.

I wonder if eggplant could be substituted for tofu in mapo dofu (mapo makhua?).

Gruzia: Your description of Georgian eggplant is making my mouth water.

[mizducky]

You may want to try the smaller variety of eggplant that is often sold at asian markets. They take far less time to cook and I find that they have less bitterness.

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It's been my experience also that the Asian varieties of eggplant seem to run less bitter on average than the big bulbous Euro-American variety. I don't necessarily get the littlest ones--I tend to go for the long skinny ones. Their skins also tend to be much more tender and mild-flavored than the Euro ones. I love to put unpeeled chunks of it into soups and stews.

I love all sorts of eggplant dishes--Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean/Middle Eastern, you name it--but I think my all-time favorite to make is ratatouille. The first batch of the summer is an annual personal kitchen rite with me. I love how the eggplant absorbs all the tomato/garlic/basil flavors and gets so succulent.

Following a tip from Alton Brown, when I roast a whole (Euro) eggplant all the way to super-soft (usually to make baba ghanoush), I now drain it in a colander for awhile after I've gotten it out of its skin. That does seem to drain away a lot of bitter juices that were liberated by the roasting process. Alton also had a method for getting a soft squishy whole cooked eggplant out of its skin that I found pretty neat, if not quite as easy as he made it look: you wrap the eggplant in plastic wrap, cut off the 'plant's green cap, and then use the plastic wrap to help you squeeze the eggplant's pulp out of its skin like toothpaste from a tube.

[sandra]

I'm a big fan of roasting them...

Try it in a pasta sauce, make cubes of an eggplant, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper - then in a single layer roast until golden brown and soft. Then mix in with a simple toamto sauce and toss with pasta...

Or, cut thick slices of aubergine, oil, s&p, single layer again and roast until golden - good for stacks of veges, or just as side dish - add any herb you like...

Roasted cubes put through a couscous or pasta salad, etc...

[prasantrin]

I wonder if eggplant could be substituted for tofu in mapo dofu (mapo makhua?).

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In Japanese it's called "mabo nasu".

[C. sapidus]

I wonder if eggplant could be substituted for tofu in mapo dofu (mapo makhua?).

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In Japanese it's called "mabo nasu".

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Awesome! Thanks, Rona. And the list of things to try grows longer . . .

[Carlovski]

I agree.  I don't normally fuss with souffle either, but this one was so easy I decided to give it a go.  It was worth it.  It's almost like a light and airy baba ghanoush.

The idea of mixing some protein in sounds pretty good too.  I'd probably vote for ground lamb to keep it more authentic.

Let us know if you try this and what your results are.

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I actually thought it sounded horrible! Lamb would make a bit more sense but I doubt either of them would rise.

[ghostrider]

I've never understood the point of eating eggplant. Lord knows I've tried them in every form imaginable. They just always leave me wondering why I bothered.

I don't really dislike them, in the sense that I find them repulsive like okra or tapioca. They just bore me.

When I was much younger there was a Szechuan eggplant & shredded pork dish that I liked. One day I realized that it was the spicy sauce & the pork that I really liked & the eggplant was just taking up space. That was it with eggplant for me.

I still don't mind a good baba gnoush as part of a Middle Eastern meal, but it doesn't set me to raving (in a good way) either.

I would ask folks to explain what it is they like about eggplant, but ultimately one's tastes are what they are.

I just wish I could share in some of the enthusiasm here.

[mizducky]

Eggplant all on its own is admittedly not a "big flavor" item. It does have a mild subtle flavor that I like. But yeah, I do prefer piling a lot of flavor on the (relatively) blank canvas. What the eggplant contributes is texture. Or more accurately textures. You can get an especially wide variety of different mouthfeels out of it depending on how you treat it, and that's lots of fun to play with, and to eat.

Edited March 11, 2007 by mizducky (log)

[KatieLoeb]

I agree.  I don't normally fuss with souffle either, but this one was so easy I decided to give it a go.  It was worth it.  It's almost like a light and airy baba ghanoush.

The idea of mixing some protein in sounds pretty good too.  I'd probably vote for ground lamb to keep it more authentic.

Let us know if you try this and what your results are.

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I actually thought it sounded horrible! Lamb would make a bit more sense but I doubt either of them would rise.

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Well, see, this is what I was saying. I've never really messed around with souffles before so I don't know if mixing in the sauteed ground meat would ruin it or not. If it stayed the same texture it would be tasty, I'm certain, but if it ruined the "fluffiness" of the dish then you are quite correct, and it would be awful.