Cookbook authors are generally enthusiastic about eggplant. Its versatility is universally cited, and most authors seem to have an eggplant recipe as one of their select favorites.

Test for the True Taste

To know what the fuss is about, you must first taste well-cooked eggplant. Undercooked eggplant is nothing special, while perfectly cooked eggplant is meltingly smooth and almost sweet in the mouth.

When steaming eggplant, the method generally recommended below, always taste. Once you become aware of the characteristic mellow taste, you will not forget it and will not want to settle for anything less.

The Problem of Slices

Open almost any cookbook, and you will probably find an instruction to cook slices of eggplant until soft, while remaining firm. This sounds plausible, but in practice is wildly ambitious. It is practically impossible to achieve both aims, and a choice must be made.

In deciding between tenderness and structural integrity, note that eggplant is not the only round vegetable. If you want perfectly round, firm slices of something, you can boil some slices of potato.

Nothing else has the smooth, soft succulence of properly cooked eggplant. Wherever possible, eggplant should be cooked long enough to bring about this characteristic succulence. If the slices turn out not to be perfectly firm, the normal case, so be it. In a casserole such as moussaka, they are buried under a sauce anyway.

To Salt or Not to Salt?

Talk about guilt. How many times have we all salted eggplant and let it rest for half an hour or more just because the recipe said so?

It turns out that sometimes salting is necessary, sometimes not.

A common misconception persists that salting is necessary to remove bitter juices. A fresh eggplant, while it may taste bitter raw, will never be bitter when cooked. An older eggplant will be bitter cooked, but salting will not help. Thus salting to remove bitter juices is either unnecessary or futile.

Salting is useful to remove water. Thus salting is used when you want slices to retain their shape, as in eggplant parmigiana. But if it is to be mashed anyway, chances are that salting is not the best approach.

Market Selection is Critical

As stated above, an older eggplant will be bitter. Thus the search for delicious eggplant must begin in the market. Look for an eggplant that is firm and shiny. There must be no soft spots. Even one is an indication of trouble.

The eggplant will keep at most 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Preferably it should be purchased for use today or tomorrow.

To Peel or Not to Peel?

Patricia Wells thinks that you should not only refrain from salting eggplant, but from peeling it as well. She says that the skin "imparts a deep, rich flavor," so should not be discarded (Patricia Wells’ Trattoria).

However, there is the matter of slices, which she does not discuss. These can become warped unless peeled, or at least peeled in stripes.

     Eggplant is used in three general ways: whipped or mashed, whole, and slices. Discussion of each and recipes follow.

MASHED EGGPLANT

If the eggplant is to be mashed or whipped, we may cook for sweet flavor alone, without regard to how the pieces may look.

Whole or Dice?

Middle East cooking is populated with innumerable mashed eggplant dishes. The recipes can be daunting, as they invariably call for roasting the eggplant over the gas flame on the stove. I do not want to do this, at least routinely. (It does provide a smoky flavor, but that is another subject.)

Fortunately eggplant can be cooked nicely by steaming.

A perfectly satisfactory method was suggested by Peggy Harvey in Season to Taste. She diced the eggplant before steaming. The dice are cooked uniformly and may be mashed easily with a fork or potato masher, or whipped in the food processor.

Julia Child uses a different method, first steaming the vegetable whole, then scooping out the flesh and mashing it. This works, of course, but does produce some long strands that do not mash easily. Also the eggplant cooks unevenly.

In this method, the eggplant is not given a preliminary salting. Instead, cooked cubes may be wrung out in paper towels, preserving the delicious liquid.

Peel eggplant if you wish. Dice eggplant into 3/4 -inch cubes. Steam until meltingly soft and delicious, perhaps 6 to 10 minutes. Press with your finger first, and finally taste.

Remove basket from kettle and let eggplant cool. Wrap in paper towels and wring out excess juice, reserving the juice for possible addition later (or for a vinaigrette or stock pot).

Whip eggplant in food processor (or mash with a fork or potato masher). It is now ready for use in any recipe calling for whipped or mashed eggplant.

Juice: If you taste the juice, you will find it as sweet and delicious as the eggplant itself. This is the juice that you lose if you salt the eggplant. It may be used in a tomato sauce or dip, to flavor yogurt, in a salad dressing, or just added to the stock pot.

A smoky flavor is desirable for some eggplant dishes. For baba ghanoush it is essential. This can be provided by the smoky tea, lapsang souchang.

When placing water in the kettle, include:

For a stronger flavor, cooked eggplant may be marinated 30 minutes or longer in the flavored water used for steaming.

This simple Greek recipe is an ancestor of the Special Eggplant Casserole which follows.

We are familiar with mashed potatoes. Here is mashed eggplant.

Serves 4

Stir butter and milk gradually into the whipped eggplant. Season to taste, decorate with parsley and serve warm.

Variation
Chantiles says serve warm, but it might also be good cold. ( haven't tried this, yet however.)

When is eggplant not eggplant? When it’s in Peggy Harvey’s casserole.

The soda crackers give the dish a flavor suggestive of oysters. It is loved by all, even those who do not normally like eggplant. If you have a family member whom you’ve been trying to introduce to eggplant, this may be your best chance.

Everything up to baking may be done beforehand. In fact, the mixture improves by standing in the casserole dish.

It may also stand after baking, although this does not improve it. You may take this to a pot luck dinner, to good effect.

Eggplant should be peeled, to make the result light and fluffy.

May be refrigerated and served cold next day.

Adapted from Peggy Harvey, Season to Taste.

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Crush the crackers with a rolling pin to fine crumbs, or pulverize in food processor.

Place warm whipped eggplant in the mixing bowl. Stir in butter, then milk and cracker crumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in additional milk, whipping with wire whisk, so that the mixture is somewhat light and fluffy.

Place mixture in unbuttered baking dish.

To make bread cubes, cut a slice of sourdough or other firm bread into ¼ inch dice. Distribute over eggplant mixture.

Melt butter in microwave and distribute over bread cubes.

If you taste now, this should be good enough to eat, but the longer the mixture sits before baking, the better it will be.

(May be made ahead to this point.

Half an before serving, bake in 350 degree F. oven until golden brown.

WHOLE EGGPLANT

Sometimes recipes call for a whole eggplant. For general purpose cooking, this may be steamed or baked.

Julia Child began in the baking camp (Mastering, Volume I). She then tried steaming (Kitchen) and finally adopted it as the method of choice (Way to Cook). I think we can trust this evolution and generally steam whole egg plant, as in the master recipe below. It is certainly more convenient than firing up the oven.

1 whole eggplant
Steaming kettle with basket and cover
Steam unpeeled eggplant until soft, 15 to 20 minutes.

1 whole eggplant, steamed as above, or baked, or roasted on gas flame

When ready to serve, quarter the steamed eggplant lengthwise. Make three or four diagonal slashes in the flesh without cutting skin.

Fill slashes with Emergency Tomato Sauce (see index).

Variations

Various other sauces may be used. Try thick yogurt cream (see index) or yogurt. Garlic versions of either may be used.

Try tomato wedges, marinated in olive oil and basil.

After cooking, coat eggplant with any good stock and let steep, for 10 minutes or several hours.

EGGPLANT SLICES

Many recipes use thin eggplant slices, ½ inch or even less in thickness. [.. refer to recipes in this book.. ] The three methods described below are admirably suited for these.

Thin eggplant slices can become warped unless peeled, or peeled in stripes. Vilma Chantiles, in The Food of Greece, (see Bookstore) recommends the latter method, which we have adopted in our household.

Preliminaries

The slices may be salted beforehand to remove moisture and produce a firmer slice. Sprinkle salt on both sides of each slice and let stand 30 minutes. Rinse off salt in cold running water.

Before cooking, slices may be lightly brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

The steamer basket is convenient for one eggplant or less. If you have more, you may wish to go to the oven method.

Place steamer basket in kettle with water just below bottom of basket. Cover and heat rapidly until steam comes up through the basket.

Peel the eggplant lengthwise in ½ inch stripes, leaving ½ inch between stripes.

Cut the eggplant in ½ inch or ¾ inch slices. Place slices in the basket. Slices may be overlapped, but they will not cook as uniformly. This is acceptable for some recipes.

Steam until just tender. Adjust heat so that steam comes gently but steadily up through the vegetables. Times will vary. Start testing as early as 4 minutes for ½ inch slices. The smaller slices from the neck will take longer than the larger slices.

Eggplant is tender when soft to the touch or when a sharp knife is inserted. The eggplant should taste smooth and almost sweet.

Remove and dry on paper towels.

This is the method described by Paul Bertolli for large quantities of eggplant. For a small quantity, this method is less convenient than the steamer, as testing for finish involves opening the oven door, removing baking pan, removing foil.

Preheat over to 400 degrees F.

Peel eggplant fully, or in stripes. Cut in ½ inch or ¾ inch slices.

Arrange slices in baking pans, overlapping if necessary. Pour water in each baking pan just to cover the surface of the pan. This will keep the eggplants moist and cook them more quickly.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake until soft, 30 minutes more or less.

Remove and dry on paper towels.

If using a very few slices, ½ inch or less in thickness, try the toaster oven. Peel fully, as the skin gets tough in the dry heat.

SAUCES FOR EGGPLANT SLICES

Tomato or yogurt sauces are generally good.
     For a piquant, Middle Eastern sauce, try walnut coriander sauce.