Taking the diapers off the eggplant

[Jenise]

Apparently the allergy I have had to eggplant virtually all of my adult life is gone now, and I've been celebrating that by cooking with it a lot lately. I no sooner use up one eggplant than I buy another. Dismayed, however, by the amount of olive oil it not only soaks up but seems to have to, much as I love the mouthfeel of that mind you, I've been working on cooking methods that deliver without the fat. Or, at least, without as much fat.

We're wild about grilling halves of the smaller oriental eggplants with white wine and olive oil. Nothing more than a little salt is required, though I sometimes add herbs. And the other night I grilled the whole eggplant, a la baba ganoush, and combined the peeled cooked chunks with a bechamel to create a base for slices of a lamb/red wine/herb meatloaf. A very good treatment.

Tonight I'm planning a deconstructed, meatless moussaka--no recipe, it's just been gelling in my brain for days and I'm ready to go with it. The potatoes and eggplant will be based on a recipe I found on Epicurious.com in which one makes a chopped/sauteed eggplant mixture that is then sandwiched between two layers of grated potatoes. It's fried/crisped on the bottom and then turned and crisped on the other side, then baked to finish. They called it a tart, but that's misleading--the recipe is just oil, eggplant, potato, salt and pepper, which to my ear seems underseasoned, and that in fact is what got me thinking in the direction of moussaka as same is a place where potatoes and eggplant come together in a fantastic way. And its a food that, for years, I've been unable to eat. For the 'moussaka' effect, I'll add garlic and allspice to my eggplant layer. Separately I'm going to oven dry some roma tomato halves marinated in a vinaigrette with parsley and a noticeable pinch of cinnamon. Chopped raisins and roasted pine nuts will bring it all together as a garnish.

Anyway, I'm curious in what ways you fine cooks cook eggplant, especially if you've perfected methods for keeping the interest high and the fat low.

I love eggplant but do not cook it as often as I would like. Grilled whole or baked whole in the oven till it collapses [ don't forget to pierce the skin unless you want to demo exploding eggplant to your cooking class ] is one way but you need to watch it carefully if you want to preserve some texture. I often let it cool [letting juices drain in a collander ]and then it is easier to dissect whole strips of flesh that you can work with - I like to use these with strips of roasted pepper in various applications - a dressing of EVOO with garlic/green olives/anchovy paste of whole anchovy - w/wo sherry vinegar makes a terrific salad/crostini topping/pasta sauce. You use much less oil when applied after cooking.
Grilled or broiled/baked in the oven with the slightest brush of oil is another- a silpat keeps it from sticking ]. I really love slices of eggplant and or zucchini like this dressed with just a bit more olive oil, red wine vinegar and mashed garlic and basil all marinated for some hours to meld.
The same technique layered with the usual lasagna ingredients rather than pasta make a wonderful lasagna or parmigiana without the fried breading.
It can be a fine line between leathery slices with too little oil and slices doing the breastroke in too much oil and the problem is - they absorb the oil initially and then release it later.. I have been known to let the drowned slices drain in a colander and re-use the drippings in another dish. I hate to lose the flavor and waste good oil.
Anyone steaming eggplant ?

RCP: Eggplant Meatballs

Peel, dice and blanch one large egg plant, drain and cool. ***I actually steam the eggplant in my vegetable steamer. It does not get so water logged and holds up better

Mix with 2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
5 or more cloves garlic, diced
1/3 cup good quality bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 tsp dried basil (I use fresh basil)
salt and pepper

Make meatballs, fry in olive oil, drain (I bake in the oven with a little EVOO on the bottom of a baking pan)
You can now freeze these or set in a baking dish, cover with 2 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce, sprinkle with parmesan and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Top with jack cheese and serve over noodles.
Note **When eggplants arrive in July, and the fresh basil is up, I make a huge batch of these meatballs, freeze individually, pack and seal in Food Saver bags. Great for quick meals in the winter.

I don't think we've ever cooked eggplant. But.....despite being mainly of Irish descent, I grew up in a suburb that was predominantly Italian. And my next door neighbor made eggplant parmesan regularly.....and it was wonderful. Sliced very, very thin. We ate it plain and we ate it as a sandwich....yum. Have ordered it at a number of restaurants but none seem to match up to the first.

You can slice the eggplant thin (~1/4 "), brush with EVOO on both sides, season with S&P, and slow roast in a slow oven on a baking sheet. You can season with oregano or marjoram. It concentrates the flavor, leaving a good soft texture that can be used for a variety of dishes.

Jenise,

Glad to hear you're over your eggplant allergy. It is a wonderful vegetable, so tasty and also so versatile.

You'll probably be amused by this ancient Arabic story/joke I heard.

A young man was introduced to a prospective bride. She was beautiful, but what won his heart was the delicious eggplant dish she cooked for him. He married her forthwith.

Part of the dowry was 10 large amphoras of fine olive oil. On their wedding night, the new bride cooked eggplant for him, much to his great delight.

The next day, he asked that she cook the same wonderful eggplant dish again. Crestfallen, she replied, "Alas! We are out of cooking oil!".

-Paul W.

One of my favorites

Spicy Szechuan Eggplant

1/4 lb ground pork
Marinade:
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
pinch (less than 1/2 tsp) cornstarch
Sauce:
1/4 C chicken broth
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar, or to taste
2 tsp cornstarch
Other:
4 Asian eggplants
1 clove garlic
4 tbsp oil for stir-frying, or as needed
1 Tbsp bean sauce
1/2 tsp chile paste with garlic, or to taste
1 tsp sesame oil

Combine the ground pork with the salt and pepper, and cornstarch. Marinate the pork for 15 minutes. While the pork is marinating, prepare the remaining ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the chicken broth, dark and light soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Whisk in the cornstarch. Cut the eggplant into 1-inch squares. Mince garlic.

Heat the wok over medium-high to high heat. Add 2 Tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant. Stir-fry the eggplant until it is softened (about 5 minutes). Remove and drain on paper towels. Add 2 more Tbsp of oil to the wok. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and bean sauce. Stir-fry until aromatic. Add the ground pork. Stir-fry until it changes color, using cooking chopsticks or a wooden spoon to separate the individual pieces. Push the pork up to the sides of the wok. Add the sauce in the middle and bring to a boil, stirring quickly to thicken. Add the eggplant slices and the chile paste. Cook for a few more minutes and stir in the sesame oil. Serve hot.

Hi Jenise

I have a cutting from the (UK) Sunday Times of many years ago when they reported on their experiments with reducing the amount of oil sucked in by aubergines (eggplants).

Their conclusion was that salting slices extracted water from the aubergine and when cooked it absorbed less oil.

That's what I've done ever since, but when I wash off the salt I squeeze the slices to get rid of more water.

And now, instead of frying them I use a pastry brush to brush each side with oil, place them ona baking sheet and grill (broil) them.

But the aubergines we get here are long fat pendulous things from Holland where Ibeleive they are grown in green hosues and probably hyrdoponically so they look beautiful and taste of little and no doubt doubt have been deliberately swelled with water.

Just last week I found a supermarket selling small aubergines, around the size and shape of hens eggs and I've used them twice so far (aubergine & cauliflower curry and ratatouille). I halve and salt them but little moisture comes out, their flesh is very firm and I give them a quick fry in olive oil, they colour quickly, don't take up much oil and they have a most beautiful silky texture and taste.

So I suppose it comes back to the variety of aubergine and how they are grown....

The Japanese eggplants, the ones about the size and shape of a medium zucchini, are great grilled whole with oil and sake. I first had them that way in Japan. You just make a "vinaigrette" with oil and sake and brush it over the skin as you grill. They used an unflavored oil in Japan; I often use olive oil.

And yes, rounds of eggplant, coated with a mixture of crumbs, parmesan, garlic, herbs and olive oil and baked slowly is good - you can brown it under the broiler after the eggplant is soft.

John

When I prepare eggplant I always salt it, and place a weight on it in a strainer for about an hour to reduce the water content. I use a very hot pan with a non stick surface. I spray the pan with cooking oil and then sear the eggplant. The heat and the little oil sear and close the surface for the most part of the eggplant. Care has to be taken not to burn the eggplant.

If one were using slices you might even use some weight on the slices assist the sealing. Hope this helps.

[Jenise]

George, that's kind of what I did when I made some stuff Italian bread rolls a few weeks ago, suddenly can't think of the name. S-somethings. They were fairly thin slices, too, and I just put some paper towels on top and ran my rolling pin over the lot to expel some of the water. They still took on quite a bit of oil, though, more than I'm really comfortable with. Hadn't thought of reverting to cooking spray. I'll have to give that a try.

But for those of you who suggested the oven method, that sounds like an exciting option. I've baked slices before (after dessicating them) but only with a breading (glued on with, get this, mayonnaise--works perfectly). I'll be trying this real soon, too.

It may well depend on the piece of fruit you're cooking. I've made and loved from my teenage years what we called "fried eggplant", where we peeled, sliced, salted, rinsed, floured, egged, crumbed and fried the little critters. Delicious, but of course anything that tastes mostly of fried is delicious.

Given two eggplants of roughly the same weight in your hand, the smaller one will cook better. Usually. <g>

Eggplants demand an accompanying flavor, I think. By themselves, they're just vaguely buttery. I remember my grandmother serving some gray-green glop that was "Eggplant - eat it - it's good for you!" and it had no taste at all, nor texture, nor color. (Gramme was in many ways a very good cook. But not vegetables. They were Iowa vegetables, in my tiny little mind.)

Maybe that's why eggplant and a zucchini that got too big and strong-tasting can work together. With onion and garlic of course.

John

[Jenise]

John, you just jogged a completely-forgotten memory of the first time I had eggplant. It was in a restaurant, the old continental kind where the appetizers were a shared munchie for the entire table, not individual first courses. My father ordered a basket of fried eggplant strips. I don't know that I even got so far as tasting the flavor because the texture was so darned weird and offputting to a kid whose entire experience with fried food was limited to shrimp and french fries. The eggplant strips were rubbery, like eating fried erasers. Didn't taste eggplant again until many years later when a date ordered eggplant parmesana in an Italian restaurant.

Didn't realize that about eggplant, the size thing, but I do always choose the smaller and firmest specimens.

We enjoyed a Sweet & Sour Eggplant Soba Friday night after returing from a trip on Thursday. The recipe is around here somehere. Leftovers for supper tonight.