If there’s one thing I truly look forward to this time of year, it’s fresh eggplant. Sliced into planks and grilled, mushed into mutabbal, fried and drizzled with hot honey—honestly, it’s my summer kink. Lately, I’ve been cooking eggplant Xi’an street-vendor-style: roasted whole over coals until soft, butterflied and drowned in a chile-garlic-soy-sauce marinade and left to bubble away on the grill until nearly all the sauce is absorbed by the tender eggplant flesh.
I recognize that eggplant can be difficult to love, though. Poorly prepared, its tough skin and dense flesh are categorically dreadful to chew, and undercooked eggplant tastes like a punishment. After all, there’s a good reason raw eggplant doesn’t usually appear on crudités platters.
Although it has long been used as both delicious food and medicine in its native Asia and in the Middle East, eggplant has nevertheless suffered from a historical prejudice in the West. Much as they suspected redheads like myself of witchcraft and licentiousness (guilty), premodern Europeans believed eating eggplant could cause melancholy, lust, and madness. (Just look at the etymology: Melanzana, the Italian word for eggplant, is a contraction of mela insana, or “mad apple.”)
The 16th century English herbalist John Gerard, for example, described eggplants thus in his 1,500-page illustrated Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes: “For doubtlesse these apples have a mischeevous quality; the use thereof is utterly to be forsake.” It wasn’t until the 19th century that people in the West began to learn how to coax out the fruit’s sweetness and appreciate eggplant as the versatile ingredient that it is.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when storing and preparing eggplant to make sure its tasting its best.
Additionally, you can delay enzymatic browning and rotting by keeping your eggplant properly stored in a safe environment. At home — Keep your eggplant on the counter or in a cool, dark place, away from fruits that produce ethylene gas. If you do store it at room temperature, keep it isolated and use within two days.
Good signs are all fine, but you don’t want your dish to look a muddy shade, do you?
After 20 minutes, drain and wash the eggplannt slices well. Pat dry – the eggplant is now ready to be used in your dish, without brown tinge or bitter taste.
Here’s a simple tip to prevent cut eggplant from discoloring. This has the added effect of reducing its bitterness.
The problem of bitterness and discoloration is more pronounced with the small varieties of aubergine / eggplant / brinjal – the large bharta baingan seems to do fine and even without this pre-cooking treatment.
Let the eggplant stand in water for 20 minutes. The water will turn brown as the eggplant slices release their dark color.
Why does some eggplant taste bitter?
Bitterness has largely been bred out of modern varieties of eggplant, which is one reason why salting eggplant before cooking isn’t strictly necessary these days. But older and overripe eggplants can develop more bitter flavors over time.
As with many other members of the nightshade family, eggplants contain a small amount of toxic alkaloids; in this case, they contain solanine, much like potatoes. But it’s really only the leaves and tubers of the plant that you want to avoid, and the fruits themselves are perfectly safe to eat. It’s not the solanine that’s responsible for bitterness, however—it’s anthocyanins, the pigments that give eggplant their characteristic purple color.
A Trick To Keep Eggplant Purple When Cooking @Roseville
FAQ
Can you cut up eggplant ahead of time?
How do you stop eggplant from turning brown?
If you can’t find lemon juice, you can always dip your cut eggplant into a bowl of milk to prevent it from turning brown. Alternatively, drop your cut eggplant into a bowl of lemon water to stop it from oxidation. Over-ripeness of eggplant refers to the over-ripeness of an eggplant.
What is the best way to cook eggplant?
Sautéing eggplant with olive oil appears to be beneficial to health as it positively affects the composition of phenolic compounds present in eggplant and has a different impact on the adjustment of the colon microbiota and the functionality of this food.
How do you keep eggplant from rotting?
Once you remove the skin and slice the eggplant, immediately reduce its exposure to oxygen by covering the eggplant slices with plastic wrap. Then, place the eggplant slices on a paper towel and salt generously; cover with a second paper towel, then place a sheet of plastic wrap over the paper towel. Allow to sit for 15-20 minutes.
How do you make eggplant less discoloration?
If you’re sauteeing or baking eggplant, add a few drops of acidity (fresh lemon juice, wine or white distilled vinegar) to the eggplant. This will adjust the pH environment of the eggplant to a more neutral state, resulting in less discoloration. Apply these tried and true technicques that are taught in food science and culinary courses.