White Eggplant
I picked up a couple of white eggplant at the greenmarket this morning [photo]. Any suggestions on how I should prepare them? I'm thinking Asian flavors...
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4 Comments:
Alaina,
White eggplant are softer and less seedier than their asian purple counterparts. They wont hold up well to frying unless you cut them up into larger chunks. A wok stir fry would work wonders with some beef and oyster sauce. I made a vegetable pasta sauce with them, pureeing it all in the end and got a big old purple one to make an eggplant parmigiana. Let me know what you do with them. In fact I am going to my greenmarket right now and see if they have any left.
nelson5757 at 2:44PM on 08/08/07
I have grown them and cooked with them. I use them in all the same recipes. An asian stiry fry with sesame oil and soy sauce a little siraci and scallion is good with rice. Mousaka, fritters, roasted with garlic on baguette, rollatini. So much you can do with eggplant. Even when its hot you cna roast them wrapped in foil right on the coals.
JerzeeTomato at 4:41PM on 08/08/07
I make an Indian version of babaganoush with them - roast the eggplants whole in the oven until soft and mushy, then mix with yogurt, salt, and fried dried red chilies and black mustard seeds (fry them in an egg poaching pan in like 1 tbls of oil). It's sooo good, and the white eggplant is great in this dish where the delicate (and non-bitter) eggplant flavor isn't masked by much else.
In fact, I'm gonna go make some now (I, too, got some white eggplants at the market on Sunday, in addition to some heirloom lavender/white streaked ones and some plain old purples).
charm city cupcake at 4:41PM on 08/08/07
Yum! I'm glad there's still plenty of eggplant season left so I can try all of these suggestions. Tonight I decided to try Harumi Kurihara's recipe for Warm Eggplant Salad. I didn't have all of the salad ingredients (shiso leaves), but the sesame sauce is fantastic and worth a repeat. Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
~12 oz eggplant
For the sesame sauce:
2 1/2 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons ground sesame
2 tablespoons sesame paste or tahini
20g chopped green onions or shallots (or myoga if you can find it)
5 shiso leaves or a mix of fresh mint and basil leaves
Chop off the eggplant stem and cut in half lengthwise. Soak in water for about 5 minutes, then drain and wipe dry. Place on a papertowel-lined microsafe plate, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes and then squeeze the eggplant to get rid of excess water.
To make the sauce, add the sauce ingredients to the sesame paste in the order listed and mix.
Slice the green onions/shallots/myoga finely, rinse and drain then slice again in half. Cut the shiso leaves in half lengthwise then into 1/8-inch strips.
Place the eggplant on a dish and add the sauce, coating it well. Then scatter the green onions/shallots/myoga and shiso leaves on top.
Alaina Browne at 10:43PM on 08/08/07