Eggplants and Aubergines

[HungryC]

Shrimp, crab, and eggplant dressing wins my vote.

[Jenni]

Deep fried, Bengali style

[zoe b]

oh, my word--these are amazing suggestions!

I don't know which one to try first. I think the polpette, since it's a gloomy day, and a good one to spend time on cooking something.

I'll be interested to see what the Hub thinks of these as he's not a huge fan of eggplant, but does love meatballs--he's always begging for them, and i rarely make them.

But i'll make the Sichuan Fish-Fragrant Aubergine next week--I think i've had this at a restaurant, and i love it--wondered how the wonderful texture was achieved--it's great to have the recipe.

And Prawncrackers--do you approve of Paul Prudhomme's recipe for the dressing? I've read it, but never tried it-- it does sound delicious.

[pyrguy]

I had an eggplant pharm that was great a while back.

The eggplant was sliced verrrrry thin and fried slightly crisp on the edges without breading before assembling the dish as usual. Made a big difference.

[ambra]

I just realized that I meant to write 180-200 celsius or 350ish F (?)

Sorry!

Edited November 30, 2009 by ambra (log)

[kayb]

I made an eggplant and chickpea casserole recently for a dinner that included a vegetarian as a guest. Sliced and roasted the eggplant, brushed with olive oil, until soft; layered in a tomato sauce that started with sauteed onions and garlic, added some oregano, a little basil, the tomatos, a touch of cinnamon, and a can of drained chickpeas. Really good.

[LindaK]

Today there was an incredible variety of eggplants piled high at my local farmers market—from big Italian to tiny Thai. They were beautiful and I bought far too many, with no real plan of attack.

There are already some great topics on the forums for favorites like eggplant parmesan, ratatouille, and moussaka. But I'm finding myself drawn to lesser known dishes such as lebanese pickled eggplant and eggplant preserves. Eggplant is really versatile, isn't it?

This topic seems to be the gathering place for eggplant ideas from across cooking cultures. Is anyone else cooking with eggplant these days? I'd be especially interested in Indian or SE Asian recipes.

[LindaK]

I took the easy way out and ended up grilling most of my eggplant last night at a friend's cookout. But during the afternoon I tried my hand at making the pickled eggplant that starts off the Small Batch Pickled Vegetables topic. I'd seen the recipe in Marcella Hazan's cookbook but never thought to try it. And unlike similar recipes, it does not require cooking--an extra bonus in hot weather. It's not clear to me how long the eggplant needs to macerate before it's ready to eat, so I'll start taste-testing in another day or two. One thing that surprised me about the many variations of this recipe that I've seen is that they all call for fresh mint. Not an herb I associate with italian cooking.

There was still one big eggplant remaining, so I've cubed and salted it to make the eggplant, tomato, and chickpea stew in Paula Wolfert's Mediterranian Cooking for dinner tonight.

Reading through so many eggplant recipes the past few days, I've been struck by the wildly different directions for salting eggplant before using, from 1 hour to overnight--even across recipes that are otherwise similar. I followed the directions in the pickled eggplant recipe for the lengthy salt, since I know nothing about making pickles, but otherwise I usually only bother for an hour or so.

[Darienne]

One of my favorite things to do with extra eggplant is to make up Eggplant Cutlets and then freeze them for later use in a number of dishes. The recipe is on eG from Rachel Perlow as part of her recipe for Moussaka.

Right now I am making pickled eggplant with my extra eggplants from a recipe that I downloaded from who knows where. Made them before and they were delicious.