Eggplants have a spongy texture that absorbs fats and flavors perfectly, but only when slightly dehydrated with the help of a couple of sprinkles of salt, explains Norton.
You'll soon notice droplets of water appearing on the eggplant's surface," she says. A good meal starts with produce that's top-notch, and eggplants are no exception. Some eggplant varieties are also better than others in different meals," says Norton.
Choose an eggplant that's heavy for its size, relatively firm, and with little to no imperfections. Otherwise, heirlooms found at farmer's market are great for most other dishes," she says. It can be tempting to coat and stuff eggplants with lots of tomato sauce, cheese, herbs, and spices. Practice restraint with eggplant dish and use ingredients to complement and enhance the eggplant, not mask it.
Depending on variety and size, eggplants take 15 to 25 minutes to fully cook. Undercook them and you'll be left with a bitter-tasting veggie that has the texture of a cotton ball, says Norton. Go for a 15 minute minimum with thin slices of tender eggplant varieties," she says. It's traditional to salt eggplant before you cook it—a technique that started way back when to reduce the bitterness and help draw out moisture. But eggplants today especially if you pick smaller ones aren't as bitter, so it's only really necessary for frying and other cooking techniques where the moisture content really matters.
If you want to salt the eggplant before you cook it, slice into rounds or dice the eggplant as needed for your recipe, then lay the pieces out on a paper towel, salt generously, layer it with more paper towels and perhaps a heavy pan to weigh it down , and let it sit for 45 minutes. Eggplant acts like a sponge when it cooks, so it'll soak up a lot of cooking liquid. Follow the recipe's liquid measurements precisely to make sure you get the texture just right.
Eggplant can give you the same texture as meat for your meatless Monday recipes and has a mild flavor that can easily take on any flavors you bring into the dish—whether you're planning a dish with Mediterranean flavors or a hearty Indian curry. Go ahead and marinate eggplant in your favorite flavor combo to see what this veggie can do.
Raw eggplant can be stored in the fridge for about a week. But you can actually freeze eggplant, as long as it's been roasted and pureed. You can use this for recipes like this miso eggplant dip. Fried or baked eggplant is delicious, but it's not the only way to cook eggplant.
One of the most popular baked eggplant recipes is eggplant parmesan, with its layers of mozzarella and marinara mixed in with the eggplant. But eggplant can also be baked into a healthier take on French fries. Recipe to try : Eggplant Parmesan Rollatini. Bake until the eggplant is tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Eggplant's meaty texture makes it a natural for cooking on the grill, whether you're cooking it outdoors or on an indoor grill pan—and grilling gives eggplant a great smoky flavor.
For grilled eggplant, rounds are most common, though you could also include eggplant cubes on kebabs or tossed with other veggies and grilled in aluminum foil or a reusable grill-friendly pouch. However you slice it, brush or drizzle the eggplant with olive oil before you add it to the grill. Next, simply cook the eggplant until it softens and browns, about five minutes per side.
The eggplant can be cubed or cut into rounds, depending on your preference. In theory, the salting removes the bitterness. But I take care to always cook fresh eggplant, which are never bitter. AT : I leave it on most of the time. The skin is thin but springy if not cooked right, not unlike the casing of a sausage. AT : I once ran across an Italian recipe for salted, pressed, marinated, raw eggplant. It was good, but it had a ridiculous amount of olive oil in it to counteract the foam-like texture of raw eggplant.
AT : I grow both a small Italian globe variety and a long Asian eggplant in my garden so that I can take advantage of these wide-ranging global methods. The globes are good for smoking and turning into babaghanous , which I make the way a fellow line cook taught me when I worked at Bouley in New York: mixing the chopped eggplant pulp with lemon juice and plenty of homemade garlic aioli.
Talk about decadent. What are your go-to eggplant dishes? For a simple meal it could be a side dish, but I first saw it in an Uzbek restaurant where it was served with pita before the meal. It boils down to the technique, which involves covering the mixture until the eggplant turns very soft, then removing the lid and simmering to evaporate the excess juices, concentrating the chunks of eggplant and tomato, and basically nearly forcing them to swap essences with each other.
The key is to jostle the pan to baste the soft vegetables with the juices, and when done, to let the entire mixture sit undisturbed until cool, which is when it tastes best. I know of no other eggplant recipe that calls to be "shaken, not stirred. Each week, The Splendid Table brings you stories that expand your world view, inspire you to try something new and show how food brings us together. We rely on you to do this. And, when you donate, you'll become a member of The Splendid Table Co-op.
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July 18, Properly cooked, eggplant is 'as plush as a pillow, as soft as custard'.
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