Cooking with Eggplant

Tips on preparing this versatile vegetable

Versatile Eggplant

Though it comes in many shapes and sizes, all eggplants can be sautéed, baked, fried, stuffed, stir-fried, grilled and much more. To take the mystery out of choosing, storing, and cooking different varieties, these tips will ensure your eggplant tastes mild and is meltingly smooth.

Common Varieties

In supermarkets most eggplants are purple or purple-black, but the skin’s color can also be white or streaked with white. The classic globe variety is typically long and pear-shaped, with a wide, round bottom end that tapers into a more narrow stem end. Sicilian eggplant is similarly shaped but slightly smaller than globe eggplant, with purple skin that is streaked with white. Italian eggplant is a deep shade of purple, but smaller and more uniformly oval than classic varieties. Japanese and Chinese eggplant can be light-to-dark purple in color and is longer, thinner, and more cylindrical in shape, much like zucchini.

How to Choose and Store

Eggplants are available in markets all year long. However, they thrive during a long, hot growing season, which means the peak harvest months are August through October. Smaller globe eggplants have milder flavor; very large, puffy ones can be bitter. Choose eggplants that are full and heavy for their size. Skins should be firm, smooth, and vibrant, with no soft or brown spots. Eggplants may appear hardy, but they are perishable and become increasingly bitter with age. Store, uncut, in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. If they come wrapped in plastic, remove it when you get home and place it in a plastic bag. The eggplant will deteriorate rapidly if there is no breathing space around it.

Peeling and Salting Tips

Most eggplants can be eaten with or without their skin, but larger globe and white varieties have tougher skins. To remove the skin, cut off both the stem and bottom of the eggplant, and drag a vegetable peeler down the length of the eggplant. To reduce some of the naturally occurring, slightly bitter taste and coax out the buttery flavor of the spongy globe eggplant flesh, sweat the eggplant by salting before you cook it. Place the slices or cubes (peeled or unpeeled) in a bowl, sprinkling the layers lightly with salt. Allow it to rest 30 minutes, then rinse it quickly under running water and firmly press dry with paper towels. Salting globe eggplant also pulls out some of its water content and renders it less permeable; this helps prevent it from soaking up a lot of excess oil during cooking. Generally, Japanese and Chinese eggplants have thin, tender skins and sweeter, less spongy flesh. The entire eggplant can be sliced or cubed; and, if it is roasted whole and stuffed, is completely edible.

Cooking Hints

Eggplants need to be thoroughly cooked until soft and creamy; then it is receptive to blending with assertive spices, herbs, and other flavor combinations. When you grill eggplant slices, keep the peel on for easier handling. Brush the slices lightly with oil, and grill them over a medium-hot fire until soft and cooked through. Before oven roasting a whole, unpeeled eggplant, pierce it in several places with the tip of a sharp knife and place it on a baking sheet. Roast at 350 degrees until it is soft and collapsing, about an hour for a 1 1/2 pound eggplant. Let it cool, split it in half, and scoop out the spongy flesh. When you fry eggplant slices, make sure the oil is very hot before putting a single layer of the slices in the pan. Do not crowd the pan or the eggplant will steam instead of fry; turn often to avoid burning. To stir-fry cubed eggplant, place a single layer in a hot, oiled pan and stir-fry until it is a rich brown color.

This is a fun way to have your vegetables with your tenderloin in one bite! Jamie’s famous remoulade sauce makes it all amazingly delicious.

Fast and easy side dish on the grill.

A full flavored dinner in half-an-hour on the grill.