Do you like/dislike aubergine (eggplant)?

I also started to refuse to eat eggplant parm when it's cooked in casserole form. Then, we saw a different way to make it. Stacks of breaded and fried eggplant rounds, parbaked first and stripes of peel removed, fresh mozzarella, minimal tomato sauce, then baked just enough for the cheese to start to melt. Clean taste and not gloppy, soggy. HUGE difference in taste and texture.
 
I can't eat Eggplant, PERIOD!
I don't care how it's prepared
I just can't!
My Father started a small kitchen garden years ago and planted far too many Eggplants. We had a HUGE output of those buggers, and my Father thought of all sorts of ways to cook an Eggplant dish - we ate Eggplant every day for MONTHS.
OVER LOAD!!!
 
As an Indian food fanatic, I can assure you that there are a million ways to prepare eggplant/aubergines which could knock your socks off. Sweet/sour Khatte Baingan from Kashmir, with ginger, green mango powder, cumin, chiles and coriander; baingan ka salaan from Hyderabad, with an abundance of spices, loads of chiles, tamarind, peanuts and brown sugar; baingan bharta, an aubergine mash with warm spices; brinjal masala, stir-fried with fenugreek, fennel seeds, cumin, turmeric, fresh chiles, onions and tomatoes; brinjal pakoras, deep-fried rounds of aubergine mixed with aromatic spices and garbanzo flour, or even brinjal pickle, a spicy hot relish with aubergines and mustard oil. Then let's not forget Imam Bayeldi from Turkey, or Moussaka, or an Italian melanzane parmigiana. Thin slices of aubergine deep fried in olive oil and served with honey, as a Spanish tapa. One of the best recipes I ever discovered was from John Ash, who gently fried aubergines in olive oil, then made "sandwiches" with buffalo mozzarella and basil; egg-wash and breaded, then fried once more and served in a tomato sauce with sundried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.
I just found these little beauties in Jungle Jim's:
Baby aubergines.jpg




I'm going to stuff half of them with a mixture of grated coconut, tamarind, brown sugar, green chiles, onion and sesame seeds. The others are going Italian, probably with some combination of minced beef, basil, oregano and mozzarella, in a simple tomato sauce.
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
I can't eat Eggplant, PERIOD!
I don't care how it's prepared
I just can't!
My Father started a small kitchen garden years ago and planted far too many Eggplants. We had a HUGE output of those buggers, and my Father thought of all sorts of ways to cook an Eggplant dish - we ate Eggplant every day for MONTHS.
OVER LOAD!!!
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TastyReuben said:
Yeah…not for me, but I think I’ve made two eggplant dishes for one of the challenges, regardless.
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I think they ruin moussaka with their floppy flesh and metallic tasting skin.

Going to hide now as I suspect that's not a popular opinion.
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I am not alone!
 
I like eggplant, it soaks up the taste of other flavours.
Eggplant dip is great :)
And one of my favourite dishes is terung belado (Indonesian, eggplant tomato dish)
 
medtran49 said:
I also started to refuse to eat eggplant parm when it's cooked in casserole form. Then, we saw a different way to make it. Stacks of breaded and fried eggplant rounds, parbaked first and stripes of peel removed, fresh mozzarella, minimal tomato sauce, then baked just enough for the cheese to start to melt. Clean taste and not gloppy, soggy. HUGE difference in taste and texture.
Click to expand...
This I can get on board with. Once peeled so long as they're floured and fried I like them so your variation is definitely something I'd try and probably like a lot.

But I have to say generally the aubergine seems to require a lot of input to make it palatable. On its own it just isn't a good veggie.

I peeled, salted, dried and coated aubergine for teppanyaki a while ago and they still didn't fly with my lot so I've abandoned them.

Do you have a link to your recipe? Or perhaps you could just let me know about the par-baked bit?
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
This I can get on board with. Once peeled so long as they're floured and fried I like them so your variation is definitely something I'd try and probably like a lot.

But I have to say generally the aubergine seems to require a lot of input to make it palatable. On its own it just isn't a good veggie.

I peeled, salted, dried and coated aubergine for teppanyaki a while ago and they still didn't fly with my lot so I've abandoned them.

Do you have a link to your recipe? Or perhaps you could just let me know about the par-baked bit.
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Per the moussaka recipe link I posted in this thread. Just watch them because cooking times vary depending on size. You still want them firmish since you are removing all or part of peel, then breading and frying.

Also, I buy younger 🍆 that aren't really big yet. I also never buy eggplant that have the huge bulbous end, as they are generally full of seeds. If that's all they have, I skip the eggplant dish that week. The eggplants I buy are shaped like the above, fairly even in size.
 
medtran49 said:
Per the moussaka recipe link I posted in this thread. Just watch them because cooking times vary depending on size. You still want them firmish since you are removing all or part of peel, then breading and frying.

Also, I buy younger 🍆 that aren't really big yet. I also never buy eggplant that have the huge bulbous end, as they are generally full of seeds. If that's all they have, I skip the eggplant dish that week. The eggplants I buy are shaped like the above, fairly even in size.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, I didn't click on the moussaka recipe because I dislike it so much but if the aubergines are tippity top then I'm happy to give it another go.

Yep I'm not going to live long enough to make all the recipes I've bookmarked! 😆
 
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