Cooking with aubergine/eggplant

Lullabelle

Midlands, England
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Aubergine is 1 veg that I have never got the hang of, on saying that your lunch looks tasty.

I have never cooked anything with egg plant, not anything. I don't even recall ever eating egg plant, - just have some idea in my head that it is mushy. Perhaps, I'm wrong.
 
I have never cooked anything with egg plant, not anything. I don't even recall ever eating egg plant, - just have some idea in my head that it is mushy. Perhaps, I'm wrong.

Any time I have had they they have been mushy and taste unpleasant, perhaps in the right hands I could be proved wrong.
 
Any time I have had they they have been mushy and taste unpleasant, perhaps in the right hands I could be proved wrong.

It's not so complicated to cook, but surely some care is needed. For example, they must first be purged by sprinkling them with coarse salt, so that they lose their water and a little bitterness. Then it depends on how you want to cook them.
 
I like aubergine but it can be mushy if overcooked. It also has the ability to soak up lots of oil which can make it rather slimy and calorific. One of my my favourite ways to cook to aubergine is to make involtini: Recipe - Aubergine Involtini with Broad Beans and Pistachio


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This recipe was really good, but a huge amount of work. I made it for 1 of the challenges. I'd make it again, but do some of the prep work the day before.

Recipe - Tres quesos (3 cheese) stuffed eggplant with salsa escalivada and garlic allioli

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I par-bake the eggplant whole, let it cool and then slice and use from there when I'm making something like moussaka or eggplant parm. The last time I made moussaka I didn't even fry the eggplant, just lightly brushed the par-baked slices with olive oil. For eggplant parm, we bread and fry the par-baked slices and make stacks instead of making a casserole type dish. Besides being more attractive, the stacks cook faster as you are basically just heating up enough to melt the cheese, which if you use fresh moz is really fast, and you don't use as much tomato sauce, which makes it less "gloppy."

We're using eggplant in a dish this week. Palestinian Upside-Down Chicken and Rice (Maqlubeh)
 
Any time I have had they they have been mushy and taste unpleasant, perhaps in the right hands I could be proved wrong.

My mom loved eggplant when I was a kid, so I had to eat it, whether I wanted to or not. I'm sure it was overcooked, but I never got a taste for it, either.

CD
 
I love aubergines/eggplants. They´re one of the most versatile vegetables I know. Today I sliced up a couple, brushed them with olive oil and grilled them - so I could make a greek moussaka. The few slices left over will be used to make some aubergine " sandwiches" tomorrow - a slice of fresh mozzarella inside, then dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and shallow-fried. Aubergine Parmigiana, Caponata, Imam Bayeldi, Baingan ka Salaan, Kashmiri sweet/sour aubergines, stuffed aubergines... I reckon I may have 20 + recipes that I regularly use.
 
My aubergine bhaji was a disaster in my opinion. However, I gave it to a friend and his wife who were vegetarians and they loved it.

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My aubergine bhaji was a disaster in my opinion. However, I gave it to a friend and his wife who were vegetarians and they loved it.


These are the Asian aubergines and they behave totally differently and look different from the usual purple ones. They tend to be crisp rather than soft and they are meant to be eaten that way. Maybe that is why you thought it was a disaster?
 
These are the Asian aubergines and they behave totally differently and look different from the usual purple ones. They tend to be crisp rather than soft and they are meant to be eaten that way. Maybe that is why you thought it was a disaster?

A few Asian aubergines......

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And some more at the open day market.

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