Sunday, July 01, 2007

eggplant

flower and its fruit (posted the day after)
.....

Eggplant is also known as aubergine (British and French) and brinjal (Asian).

Varieties: round or long ones; white or purple or gold color skin -- the skin of the young is tender but the mature and huge ones are thick and not for eating.

Eggplant has good source of dietary fiber and potassium.

The vegetable can be baked, steamed, microwaved, bbq or sautéed. When baking it whole, pierce the eggplant several times with a fork to make small holes for the steam to escape.

These are ways of eating this vegetable which I've tried at restaurants:

  • sauté with garlic and soy sauce with a dash of sugar;
  • sauté with minced pork/prawns/dried prawns and chili;
  • deep fried – coat in batter – taste sweet and soft (Japanese are excellent for this);
  • steam or fried with a spread of fishcake on a slice;
  • some in Thailand eat that raw dipped in chili and prawn-paste with glutinous rice (didn’t dare try when offered during my Northern Thailand trip recently);
  • cooked in curry sauce, especially in fish-head curry (Indians and Peranakans);
  • … Do you have more to add or any to recommend?

(How strange: Unable to download photos from my photo album but able to download borrowed images from the internet.)

5 comments:

Bob said...

Don't forget this:

"Arrange the eggplant slices on several baking sheets and sprinkle generously all over with kosher salt. Set aside to let the bitter juices weep from the eggplant, about 1 hour.

Transfer the eggplant to a colander in the sink, and rinse well under cold running water. Transfer eggplant to a work surface and blot very dry with paper towels."

Eggplant parmesan is an all time favorite - if done correctly.

twilite said...

Hi Bob! Glad you said 'if done correctly' -- I tried but... Thanks for the tip and I shall try this one again.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

I love the "penguin" picture....LOL! FUN!
I've always loved Eggplant Parmeasan...! Very Delicious if made correctly!

I cannot imagine eating rggplant raw...it would be so tough to chew!
(Which it is, sometimes even after cooked, if not cooked really well...!)

Mother of Invention said...

Neat penguins! I actually don't like eggplant. My blogger still won't go to Compose mode!

twilite said...

MOI: sorry to hear that your blog site is garbled when you try to blog. Feel your frustration.