Any good recipes for eggplant?!
Any good recipes for eggplant?
Never even eaten it - got a fresh one from a co-worker's garden and want to do it right - please help.
Answers:
You will learn to love eggplant--it's veggie, but it has the texture of a meat.
Be sure to soak (sliced or cubed) eggplant in salty water for at least 30 minutes before cooking in any recipe. Unless you do this, it might taste bitter.
There are many fantastic eggplant recipes, especially in Middle-Eastern cooking.
A super one is "Imam Bayeldi"-
This is halved, baked, stuffed eggplant.
2 eggplants
4 T. olive oil
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup. coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup skinned and chopped tomatoes
3 T. white or golden raisins
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
Cut the stems from the eggplants and slice them in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh to leave a shell 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle salt over the shells and the flesh scooped out and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse and dry well.
Preheat the oven to 400F. Heat the oil, add the cumin, corander and pepper and cook for 1 minute, then add the onion and fry until transparent. Cut the eggplant flesh into small chunks, add these to the onion and fry until they are almost soft. Put in the tomatoes, raisins, garlic and tomato paste---continue cooking until the tomatoes have almost broken down into a puree. If the mixture seems dry, add up to 1/4 cup water. Fill the eggplant shells with the cooked mixture and place them in a baking dish. Bake the eggplant for about 40 minutes.