Dear Vixen,
Can you help me with eggplants? They always look so beautiful in the store. I buy them and then don't know how to prepare them. Do you have any easy recipes that use them? I've heard you should cut and salt eggplant to get the bitterness out of it before using. Is this true?
I don't cook much, so please keep the recipes simple.
Thank you!
Cookie
Dear Cookie,
I'm glad you asked. Eggplants ARE quite beautiful. When they are fresh they should appear dark, shiny and smooth, almost ready to burst. They should be heavy in the hand as well. The heavy ones are nice and moist inside... not dry and airy.
Eggplants come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. Your basic eggplant is dark purple,elongated pear shaped and weighs between .5 and 2 lbs. But Asian eggplants are long and skinny. They can be a much paler shade of purple. Globe eggplants are round and come in lots of colors: purple, pale green, white. They can be solid or striped - mixing all these colors. They are beautiful and quite tasty.
Eggplants require a hot growing season, similar to tomatoes, and should be stored like a tomato as well. What do I mean by that? Don't refrigerate your eggplant when you get it home. That's right, keep it on the counter until you use it. But use it within a day or two at the most. A cold refrigerator will take away some of the great flavor of the eggplant (just like tomatoes). It's best to store them in a cool dry place.
As for the bitterness issue. As the eggplant ages, it gets bitter. If you buy a fresh eggplant that is in great shape and you cook it up quickly, there is no need to deal with the salting. If you have an eggplant that doesn't look it's best, or you've stored it in the refrigerator for a few days, you probably should salt it.
Here's how:
- Cut the eggplant into the shape the recipe calls for.
- Put the pieces in a colander.
- Salt liberally
- Leave the colander in the sink for an hour.
- Rinse the eggplant.
- Shake off excess water and dry with towels.
- Now you're ready to cook!
Have you heard the story about Eggplant and Oil? There's an old tale about a pair of newlyweds which explains the affinity between eggplant and oil. It seems the husband received 10 containers of olive oil as part of the dowry when he was wed. The husband's favorite food
Go To Page: 1 2
