The CookingBites recipe challenge: aubergine (eggplant)

[Morning Glory]

Recipe - Garlic butter baked aubergine and tomatoes. I couldn't find any other recipe for this in the internet. I'm sure there must be somewhere... or maybe I really did invent something.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Garlic butter baked aubergine and tomatoes

That looks absolutely voluptuous!
I can imagine Nigella Lawson preparing that and pouting at the camera. God forbid

 

[TastyReuben]

I can imagine Nigella Lawson preparing that and pouting at the camera.

“Now to choose the ideal aubergine, one should cast their wanting gaze longingly upon the dark purrrrplish offerings in the high street market and wait patiently to be seduced by exactly the right one.

“Once you’ve fallen for what you feel in your heart to be the proper fruit (for you do know it is a fruit and not a vegetable, dear friends, but we don’t really care about that), reach out for the one you desire, with a commanding but gentle touch, and ever so slowly yet purposefully, engage the skin, caress it under your fingertips, applying tender pressure, to feel the firmness of the flesh yielding to you, softly but surely springing back…that’s how one properly chooses an aubergine.”

 

[karadekoolaid]

Nice try, buddy.

 

[medtran49]

Why mention this here? Because she also said she wouldn't even eat eggplant for a while because she associated the vegetable with eggs.

I suppose everyone has their reasons for not liking certain food.

I've always wondered how eggplant got its name. I mean it's purple and I don't know of any chickens that lay purple eggs. There are a few varieties that are shaped like an egg when fully grown, but they all have at least some purple on them. The only white eggplants I know are small long and skinny. The ones I grew years ago were called Icicles and had the toughest skin I've ever encountered for something that size. They were NOT pleasant to eat.

 

[TastyReuben]

I've always wondered how eggplant got its name.

The internet says when eggplants were first brought here, they were a white variety and grew in smaller, rounder globes, resembling eggs.

 

[TastyReuben]

The only white eggplants I know are small long and skinny.

When I bought the three eggplants I used, one was purple, one striped, and one white, all in the traditional shape we’re used to here.

I’d never seen a white one or a striped one before, since I’ve never really paid attention to them before.

 

[karadekoolaid]

I've always wondered how eggplant got its name.

Yes. The original eggplant (at least, the one which arrived in the USA) was white. Mediterranean eggplants were purple. Aubergine is a French word and we Brits embrace all French cuisine. Aubergine, courgette, beef, pork, foie de gras, etc.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I suppose everyone has their reasons for not liking certain food.

With me it's taste and/or texture. Weird, I know.

 

[Morning Glory]

Can we have an extension karadekoolaid - I've so many ideas and not enough time!

 

[karadekoolaid]

Can we have an extension @karadekoolaid - I've so many ideas and not enough time!

I'm a little hesitant to apply an extension, since the response has been, to be honest, very poor.
However, I'm here to judge the Challenge, not peoples ' dislikes. I love aubergines and think they're extremely versatile, so let's add....
3 more days? Does that sound OK?

 

[Morning Glory]

I'm a little hesitant to apply an extension, since the response has been, to be honest, very poor.
However, I'm here to judge the Challenge, not peoples ' dislikes. I love aubergines and think they're extremely versatile, so let's add....
3 more days? Does that sound OK?

OK thanks. Done. I was probably being a bit selfish and also half hoping some others might be persuaded to enter. I've got far more than 6 potential entries so I'm going to have to edit my list.

 

[Morning Glory]

Calling for more entries please - we currently have 6.

Ironically, we had more entries when the ingredient was first chosen some 6 years ago and there were fewer active cooks on the forum in those days.

Please note that you do not have to include a photo, nor do you need to cook the recipe within the time frame of the challenge. So long as you haven't posted the recipe as a 'Recipe thread' before, then it is eligible.

 

[Herbaceous]

Wish I could enter, but non-functional right hand means I’m out for this one. My cooking ability at the moment is limited to sandwiches and microwaving the odd pizza pop.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I was dwelling on various ideas, like seafood stuffed small eggplants...and I thought how much better this would be stuffed in a poblano or large jalapeño instead. Crabmeat mixture atop large butterflied shrimp and wrapped with thinly sliced Cajun seasoned eggplant strips? That would be better wrapped in bacon. Sigh.