I have a deep and abiding love for eggplant - from mutabal and baba ghanoush to eggplant parmigiana and “eggplant with garlic sauce” - and so very many dishes in between.
But (confession time), it’s not an ingredient I feel confident in cooking with. To salt or not? How to address the occasional bitterness? What are the flavor and texture differences between varieties and should they be prepared differently or is it okay to substitute one variety for another?
These three recipes all appeal:
So, what do you do with eggplant?
(If there’s another eggplant-centric thread, please let me know; I searched but not vigorously.)
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
Most often, aubergine gets turned into moutabal. But the dish I like most is imam bayildi. We used to do a healthy take on it, where the slices of aubergine were poached in passata instead of being fried. The usual filling of fried onion, garlic, tomato , parsley and pul biber topped the slices. And everything was served at room temperature. This was from a brief period of trying to do healthy eating so 30 years back.
Sliced thin, breaded,fried and layered into sandwiches. I keep a stack on hand during eggplant season. Whether it’s mozz, tomato, pesto, with chicken cutlets, or on pizza. It’s something I look forward to.
Sliced open faced, scored annd seasoned and roasted with olive oil until tender then parmed like an eggplant boat.
Stir fried in thinned pesto sauce and tossed over spaghetti. .
Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables, so I have a very yummy recipe that never goes wrong and will be a very different, new and refreshing recipe for you. Here we go:
Roast eggplants over flame or in oven until charred.(apply some oil and cut in halves)
Peel the charred skin and mash it.
Heat oil, add onion, garlic, and tomato. Cook until soft.
Add your favorite spices- turmeric, salt, pepper (you can skip it)
Serve with naan or rice.
Trust me you will love it!!
I don’t add olives, as I like to keep it as simple as possible. Frying the eggplant is essential, which is why I rarely make this. Tomato paste, garlic, onion, celery, raisins, pine nuts, and toasted almond on top.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
11
But your mention of it reminds me that I should have mentioned tumbet - the Mallorcan dish of aubergine, potato, peppers, onions and tomato. It’s a lovely thing to eat but not something I actually cook. My SiL makes the best ever tumbet (and ratatouille). She fried each vegetable separately, so there’s no over-cooking. And then brings them all together for a quick final warm-through. Perfect as a starter, veggie main course or an accompaniment to simply cooked meat or fish.
The word sauce is hard for me to swallow. Really, it’s usually used as a bread spread or condiment. Had Serbian neighbors where I grew up, so they got me hooked. It reminds me of dipping bread into red pasta sauce, only better. You just eat it cold or room temp right out of the jar on your favorite bread.
If you blend it with yogurt and oil, makes a fine dip. A tablespoon in your pizza sauce makes a difference, too.
early season eggplants, which may still have a green blush near the stem, have smaller, paler seeds, which makes them less bitter.
narrow, long purple eggplants, which I’ve seen called both Italian and Japanese, are less bitter.
There IS a website of eggplant facts, history, and recipes but I can’t now find it.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
17
It’s a long time since I’ve seen salting aubergine to remove bitterness being mentioned in a UK cookbook or TV cookery programme. I think it’s now been bred out of the ones sold here
Rummaniyeh - Palestinian recipe for lentils with aubergine
Serves4
250g brown lentils
1 tbsp ground cumin
600ml water
1 aubergine, peeled and cubed into small pieces
1 tbsp salt
50ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4–6 large garlic cloves, sliced and crushed
150ml pomegranate molasses
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tbsp plain flour (optional)
1 pomegranate, seeded
Flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve
1 Put the lentils, cumin and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then continue to boil for 10 minutes. Add the aubergine and salt, then leave to simmer for 25 minutes.
2 Set another pan over a medium heat. Add the olive oil and garlic and cook for a few minutes until they turn golden.
3 When the lentils and aubergine have been cooking for their 25 minutes, add the fried garlic and pomegranate molasses, and stir. Cook for another 5 minutes, then mix in the lemon juice and, if you like, add the optional tbsp of flour to thicken the dish (omit this for a gluten-free version).
4 Place in a serving bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil, scatter the pomegranate seeds over the top and finish with some parsley. Enjoy with hot flatbreads or rice.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
19
Talk about co-incidence, medg.
I’m cooking that for dinner tomorrow. Yasmin Khan’s recipe from “Zaitoun”. Along with a cucumber, date and pistachio salad that was in the last Observer Food Monthly supplement. Khobez bread as the carb. And olives and jarred pickles. Figs for afters.
I did get this recipe from an article publicising that cookbook by Yasmin Khan when it was published. But I had forgotten the recipe author until you reminded me just now - thanks!
