Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Reds


We were told that the small red Italian eggplants we picked up at the Farmers' Market last week were an heirloom variety. I'm no expert on eggplant - i only started enjoying it a few years ago myself - but for sure i'd never seen any bright red ones nor knew of their existence until then.

be ended up slicing each eggplant, marinating them in extra virgin olive oil, basalmic vinegar and herbs, and grilling them in our cast iron grill pan. They were quite bitter, filled with tiny hard seeds and covered with a surprisingly tough skin: a bit reminiscent of the more common large deep purple variety. They were good over pasta with some grilled portabella mushrooms and sauteed dandelion, but would've been tastier if less bitter. I haven't tried this, but some cooks recommend rubbing the cut eggplant slices with salt to leech out the bitterness, rinsing the salt away after 15 minutes and then preparing as usual. I recall my mom used to do this when making her beef-filled eggplant slices (aka the culprit to my eggplant-phobia!).

posted by beXn @ 12:26 AM

4 Comments:

At 11:02 PM, October 11, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey,

Ooh, those look good! When I was very lucky, my mom would slice eggplant really thin (I think with a mandolin), bread it, and fry it. Totally un-healthy, but oh so yummy.

In addition to the salt method, you can also simply soak slices of eggplant in water, although I think the salt method works better (I would use the soak method if I was on a low-sodium diet).

I find if I eat eggplant that hasn't been salted or soaked, I often upset my stomach; going through this process makes a huge difference and is well worth the time.

 
At 11:43 AM, October 12, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

dear miss queen bexn,
i've been eating a lot of eggplant this summer. it comes with our csa box, so we get 2 to 3 at a time. i've been roasting them in slices (coated with olive oil, sea salt, red pepper, and whatever fresh herbs i have-- usually rosemary) in the oven until it's nice and crispy and then cut them up to put in pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, etc. it's so good and simple. (we have a good veg lasagna recipe that calls for roasted eggplant, along with swiss chard that's cooked in white wine--tres tasty. it's always a winner at dinner parties).

ok, now the real reason i wrote in today. i just saw this article in the nyt dining out section about a tomato store (all tomato, all the time) on canal street. you should check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/dining/12tomato.html?oref=login

chubbin in philly,
k

 
At 4:27 PM, October 13, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My mom disses those big dark purple eggplants. She much prefers the "Asian" ones -- a little bit lighter/brighter purple, thinner. She thinks they taste better. I don't want to be eggplantist, but I'm inclined to agree with her.

I've heard of the salting method. I don't remember whether my mom does it. It sounds like salting squash/cucumbers (but for different reasons). Salting squash helps get the water out, so it doesn't water down whatever dish it's in.

 
At 6:22 PM, October 18, 2005, Blogger beXn said...

I'm glad i finally gave eggplant another chance! be's a huge fan but since i'd only eaten it in the beefy way, i hated it ever since childhood. We'll totally try the breaded & fried method, B (anything breaded/battered and fried is awesome by me!) and K's oven-roasting + herbs method (which sounds similar to how we season the eggplant when we indoor-grill it). Thanks!

I'm also inclinded to agree with you C, i think the thinner light purple eggplant taste better and have a nicer texture. We both also like white eggplant and those baby striped ones. The next time we get a large Italian eggplant i'm going to try B's water soaking method too!

 

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