Tag Results

Search this site:

5 Tag Results from Harvest to Table

Pagination: 1

5 result(s) displayed (1 - 5):

Cooking Eggplant

The subtle flavor and meaty texture of eggplant make it especially versatile in cooking. Perhaps that’s why eggplant is found in so many cuisines around the world.

One of the strengths of eggplant is its ability to absorb the flavor of whatever it is cooked with and at the same time add a creamy bulkiness to a dish.

The dark purple, bulbous, egg-shaped eggplant (called ‘aubergine’ almost everywhere but in the United States) is the most recognizable eggplant in most markets. But the long Oriental types are catching on, and other varieties—such as the tiny green Thai eggplant—can be found on occasion.

You can’t eat eggplant raw, but you can cook eggplant in many ways: boil, steam, sauté, stir-fry, braise, bake, deep-fry, grill, broil, and microwave.

Continue reading "Cooking Eggplant" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Oriental Eggplants

Of course you know the large somewhat bulbous purple eggplant (called aubergine in Britain and many other parts of the world). But there are many other shapes and colors of eggplant: long and thin, egg-shaped, pale purple, yellow, and white to name a few.

Oriental-type eggplants are primarily slim, tapered or pointed elongated fruits that may remind you somewhat of a skinny, smooth and shiny cucumber. Oriental eggplants are mild, tender-skinned, creamy-fleshed, and quick-cooking eggplants.

The Oriental-type eggplants can be divided into two groups: Chinese eggplants and Japanese eggplants.

Chinese eggplants are lavender-blushed white, amethyst, and red-violet colored. They are delicate and low in seeds. The Chinese eggplant has a purple calyx, or stem cap.

Japanese eggplants are dark violet to inky-purple and are usually heavier and firmer than Chinese eggplants. The stem cap or calyx of the Japanese eggplant is bright green.

Continue reading "Oriental Eggplants" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Eggplant

The mild flavor and light, spongy texture of the eggplant make it a good match for other vegetables, browned and chopped meat, cooked fish or shellfish.

The eggplant can be sliced and simmered, sautéed or stir-fried, pan-fried, deep-fried, baked or boiled, and broiled and grilled.

One small or medium-size eggplant split lengthwise will make two shells perfect for stuffing as its own casserole dish. Just mix the flesh of the eggplant together with bread crumbs, stuff the shells, and bake.

Locally grown eggplants will be at your farm market in mid- to late summer, August through September in the Northern Hemisphere.

Continue reading "Eggplant" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Eggplant

Eggplant? Did you say ratatouille?

At least one of your favorite farm market vegetable growers has got eggplant or sale this week.

And that means your first batch of season fresh ratatouille can not be far behind.

All of the key ingredients for ratatouille are now available fresh and local: tomatoes, onions, zucchini, bell peppers and, of course, eggplant.

When you think of eggplant, you think first of the oval, black-skinned cultivar known as 'Black Beauty.' That is the classic eggplant with its rich, complex flavor and firm texture even after cooking.

Continue reading "Eggplant" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Eggplant: The Fruit

Now, one more thing about eggplant. Just so you have it on the record: Yes, the eggplant is a fruit not a vegetable.

Botanically speaking a fruit is the ripened ovary--including the seeds--of a flowering plant. That means that many foods called vegetables when cooking are actually fruits. That list would include squash, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet pepper, tomato and eggplant.

If you look at that list, it includes almost all of the ingredients for ratatouille, which we recently discussed. Does that make ratatouille technically a kind of fruit sald? No, because culinary speaking, a fruit is usually any sweet tasting plant with seeds. (Did you just flash on the sweet tasting rhubarb? There are exceptions to every rule, aren't there.)

On to the farm market for eggplant!

(Oh, yes: a one-pound fresh eggplant contains 117 callories--about 76 when cooked, 1 gram of fat, 28 carbohydrates, 992 mg of potassium, and 387 international units of Vitamin A.) 

 

Continue reading "Eggplant: The Fruit" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Pagination: 1