Eggplant has a property that makes it easy to distinguish real eggplantophiles. To do this, you need to take one purple berry (after all, an eggplant is a berry) and ruthlessly burn it in the tongues of any flame that comes up. Do not fry, namely, burn the skin to blackness, to a suffocating aroma, similar to the smells of burning peat bogs. If you love this fragrance, you are a real connoisseur.
With this flavor, it is supposed to cook eggplant caviar, no matter if it is of Odessa or Caucasian quality, and airy babaganush puree in Jerusalem and throughout the Middle East. This burning smell gives volume to the eggplant, just as the smell of old leather and the same peat characterizes single malt whiskey positively. By the way, good whiskey and scorched eggplant are a great couple.
Eggplant also has another side. Yes, ideally he should go through the fire, but this is not at all necessary. Young eggplants that have not yet acquired hard seeds can be eaten raw, like tomatoes or cucumbers. And if you fry – then a matter of seconds, just to flavor with oil and give a little flavor. Actually, this is how the best ratatouille is prepared – vegetables are barely fried separately, and then mixed into a warm vegetable salad. Eggplant dishes in different cuisines are so organic that it seems that the hands of hundreds of generations have worked on their appearance, plot structure and combinations of flavors. Meanwhile, eggplant entered active use in Europe only in the XNUMXth century, along with other solanaceous ones – potatoes and tomatoes, about which it also seems that they have always been. The only thing that is absolutely impossible to understand about eggplant is why in the Russian south it is called “blue”, when it is dark purple at best, and more often black. Okay, blue-black.
Read more:
- Salad with variations
Ratatouille
“Whiskey and scorched eggplant make a great pairing!”
For 4 persons
Preparation: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 eggplant
- 1 onions
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 10 g parsley
- Pinch of sugar
- 50 ml olive oil
- ½ teaspoon tomato paste
- Salt, black pepper powder
cooking
Cut the onion and eggplant into small cubes. Sprinkle the eggplant with salt and let it sit for a few minutes to release the juice. Press. During this time, clean the peppers and tomatoes from the insides, cut the flesh into the same cubes as eggplants. Finely chop the garlic and parsley.
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, fry the onion until soft and drain it in a colander. Add a little oil to the pan, fry the eggplant cubes in it until soft and discard them in a colander.
Now it remains to fry (all in the same oil) the pepper cubes and also throw them into a colander.
Pour the remaining oil into the pan, fry the garlic until soft, add the tomato paste, a pinch of sugar, and then immediately the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 seconds, then stir in all the fried vegetables and chopped parsley, salt, pepper, sweat for a minute and remove from heat.
Read more:
- Pantry of the Sun
Babaganush
“One thing cannot be understood: why is it called blue?”
For 4 persons
Preparation: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 eggplant
- 50 g sesame seeds
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 lemon
- 50 ml olive oil
- 10 g parsley
- Salt, ground black pepper to taste
Preparation
Pierce the eggplants with a fork or knife in several places and place for half an hour in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. When they are ready, remove the pulp, being careful not to burn yourself. Or let them cool and scoop out the pulp when the eggplant is cold.
The less purple skin gets into the dish, the better: only the pulp is needed. In a blender, make a paste of sesame seeds, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper.
Or take a ready-made mixture – it is called “tekhina”. Add eggplant and parsley. Turn the mixture into a smooth puree.