Posted 3/1/2016 2:35 PM (GMT 0)
People either love it or hate it but here are some ideas for cooking eggplant that I have done. Please add your own recipes so we can have different ideas. Keep in mind that what I'm posting will be my own version of what you might have eaten before and sometimes I have no 'name' for them.
Note that eggplant is frequently paired with tomatoes and cheese. It can be pretty firm so you can even slice it laterally into planks and use them as a base for a lasagne-type dish. Sometimes, if a crop of eggplant seems bitter, people sprinkle salt on the slices before cooking. This draws out moisture and then you rinse that off and go on with your recipe.
The eggplant I use for these are the large ones. There are skinny eggplants, too, but they would not work too well with these recipes.
1. eggplant parmigiana
Peel an eggplant and slice it into circles about 1" thick. Dip into beaten egg and then wheat bran (which has some herbs and garlic powder and salt mixed in). Fry in a little oil until the outside is golden. Line a greased casserole dish with the eggplant and top with grated cheese and then an herbed tomato sauce. You can make a couple of layers of this or just one. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. You may need to put aluminum foil on top if it gets too brown too fast.
Or,
Instead of baking the whole thing, you can put a couple of eggplant on your dinner dish and top with a tomato or some tomato sauce and then grated cheese.
2. roasted eggplant
Peel an eggplant and slice into circles about 1" thick. Place on a baking sheet (on aluminum foil is best) and brush with oil, both sides. Put minced garlic with a bit of salt onto each slice and bake until the eggplant is done, soft and then finish them off with the broiler so the tops are browned.
Another version to this: Place a slice of tomato on each eggplant slice and bake. Add cheese at the end if you want.
3. mashed eggplant and tomatoes
(This is really time-consuming but tasty if you like eggplant.) Pierce two whole eggplants with a fork and bake them for an hour or so until they are completely soft. They will sort of collapse. Take them out of the oven and let them cool off to the point that you can handle them to strip the skin off completely. Then, mash the insides in a large pot and saute it with A LOT of minced garlic and cut up tomatoes. Add a little oil so it doesn't stick to the pan. When that mixture thickens up (all the watery tomato and eggplant juices will evaporate), add salt, pepper, and tumeric. Stir it all around. The texture should be really thick. Finally add a beaten egg and simmer until the egg is cooked.
4. moussaka
This is a Greek casserole with meat and tomatoes. You can find the recipes online anywhere.
5. stuffed eggplant
Rinse whole eggplant with water. slice in half laterally (long-wise) and scoop out the insides with a spoon and put the insides in a bowl. Be careful not to pierce the skin. You will have eggplant "boats" or shells. Some people sprinkle salt into the shells and let them sit awhile and then rinse. In the meantime, chop up the eggplant's insides and saute it in a large pot with garlic, onion, tomatoes, herbs that you like until it's all soft and cooked and not too soggy. Then, put this into each shell and top with grated cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) and maybe some slices of tomatoes. (You can also mix some cheese into the stuffing while putting it all into the shells. Bake at 350 until they are all cooked.
6. eggplant scramble
Peel and chop up eggplant into cubes. Saute the cubes with onions and other vegetables of your choice.