What does eggplant smell like

How did I never think of that. I too go thru spoons every time I make anything new in the kitchen. I actually got the trick from a masterclass I did with the Australian chef Tetsuya… when I saw him do it.. I had the exact same thought ;. I really like the look of your chunky babaganoush as opposed to the super smooth versions your most often see. What can I say? I like pretty much everything chunky :D. I must say that I really love your photos. Here in Greece we really love eggplants. We just add some chopped parsley as RAN suggested.

A tiny tip for those who want to try. After roasting your eggplant try to peel off the skin as soon as possible to keep the inside white and of course oil — lots of olivw oil. Thank you. Eggplants, tomatoes, onion and garlic goes well. Eggplants can soak up so much oil. Roasted eggplants tastes better. Long eggplants are better for roasting per my grandma.

I made this tonight—found I needed only two tablespoons of lemon juice and we upped the garlic. We ate it with pita chips and a cucumber salad. It was a hit! An exciting moment during the preparation: I put the eggplant under the broiler in the oven instead of over the stove flame, and when I went to check on it, it exploded! Stayed mostly in one piece, thankfully, but it cracked open with a loud pop!

I poked the other one with a fork to avoid a second explosion. Jules, the eggplant was in the main oven, but I had it right under the heating element. Never again without poking some holes first! Well done for not not sticking the eggplant in the food processor! A Lebanese fairy dies everyone does that. Great recipe recipe, and very authentic. Just like mom makes it.

I like charring it and then putting it in the oven. This draws out any extra juice and results in a more concentrated flavour, and also allows the smokiness to infuse into the flesh before the burnt skin is removed.

Not a necessary step — your recipe will work a treat. It does need a good deal of olive oil on top. It browns quickly, and even tricks like squirting it with lemon juice that works on other produce won't help much with eggplant. To extend the storage life of raw eggplant, freeze it. It must be blanched first; otherwise, it still discolors and loses quality in taste and texture.

To blanch an eggplant:. To freeze the eggplant, dry it completely. If you have a vacuum sealer, use that to package it. Otherwise, press out as much air as you can when sealing the freezer bag. For the best quality, use frozen raw or cooked eggplant within a year from freezing. Eric Mohrman is a food and drink, lifestyle, and travel writer. He spent 10 years working front- and back-of-house in a few casual and upscale restaurants, adding professional experience to his love of eating and cooking.

He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. When to Toss an Eggplant If an eggplant's skin is getting withered and wrinkly, or if the fruit yeah, eggplant is technically a fruit is notably soft or squishy, or it just has soft spots anywhere, it's rotting. How to Select Ripe Eggplant Look for eggplants that have vibrant, shiny, smooth, taut skin that's uniform in color as well as green, healthy-looking stems that aren't dried out, decaying or moldy.

Mother was bragging at elementary school meetings how I consumed my vegetables and legumes not only with tolerance, but actual glee! Aubergines especially were among my very favourite, an unusual trait for a child, as the vegetable is bitter by its nature. But my mother was savvy to exquisite kitchen arcana that involved little tips to be divulged at a later date: One of them is she used to salt them meticulously before broiling on the stove making the roasting aroma of eggplant one of the most beloved and nostalgic pangs I can feel in my heart of hearts even now.

The whole house was aromatized by it and coming back from school I knew there was melitzanosalata on the table aubergine paste, basically, although "salata" means salad in Greek ; it's still one of my favourite goes-with-everything accompaniments on the table Just try to resist spreading on roasted fresh bread and then we can talk.

She used the pulp of the roasted eggplant scooped out with a spoon to prepare it, some crumbled feta cheese the salty flavour again rounding off the bitterness admirably , a couple of teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and a little finely chopped fresh garlic and blended them in a hand mixer. It was utterly delicious! I make Sicilian involtini myself nowadays. I certainly can't put the spoon down! According to the Arabs, who first brought eggplant to the West during the early Middle Ages and indirectly gave it its botanical name, "If your future wife can't prepare aubergine 50 different ways, reconsider marrying".

The info comes from Janna Gur's Book of New Israeli Food which is excellent In Morocco and Lebanon, people eat them fried up along with hummus made from chickpeas and tahini, spreading on small pieces of pita bread. I very much liked this version and am recommending it to you as well. Recipe for Fried Eggplants with Hummus You will need four-five purple eggplants, preferably the long, slender variety with white and purple stripes.

Also olive oil for frying and all-purpose-flour, a little salt and pepper and 1 cup of soda water for battering. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare and makes enough quantity for people as a side-dish. Put the olive oil in a pan, it should be about two fingers deep and bring it to a frying temperature. Test it for readiness by sticking a piece of the vegetable in it, if it sizzles, it's ready.

You want it to be really, really hot so the eggplants don't absorb too much oil but form a crust immediately 2. In the meantime peel the eggplants taking care to leave a thin stripe of the peel every inch or so and cut them to pieces: I prefer to slice them or cut them in small cubes about an inch thick.

Fry them until they turn dark golden, they should be a little crispy but not darken too much. They tend to absord a lot of oil, so drain them on a plate lined with kitchen paper for a while. Salt them some more and serve hot with hummus sprinkled with roasted pine-nuts and some pita bread to bring out all the humble, earthy elements nicely. If you don't have a reputable Middle-Eastern deli in your area or have the inclination to make hummus from scratch, here is an easy and quite decent recipe.

As an epilogue, no matter how utterly lovely and intriguing I find the smoky aroma of roasted eggplant, I have been searching for it to no avail in some form of a scented product Have you been successful? I need the feedback, if you have. Perfumers might not have succumbed to its charms yet, nor have home fragrance producing companies, probably because they think that its peculiar scent is not attuned to the sensibilities of western societies who associate smoky with campfires or electrical wire troubles and not indoor fun activities.

Still, I am throwing the idea on the table and hoping that the tanginess and earthiness of this dark, slick beauty will find imitators soon.

Pic of eggplants via elements4health. Labels: aromatic cuisine , aubergine , eggplant , recipe. Fiordiligi ScentScelf Cat Fish Illuminated Perfume Linda March Olfacta Anonymous Rose Ines Alexandra Perfumeshrine Dain Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom. Chypre series 2: Ingredients. Ripe eggplants at the peak of perfection are firm, with shiny and taut skin. To keep yours fresh and perky, definitely store it in the fridge, but there's no need to fuss over it with damp paper towels or a prime spot in the crisper: They're so hardy that senior associate food editor Alison Roman just stores 'em on a shelf and calls it good.

We've long been told we should be salting eggplant before cooking it to pull out the moisture and to temper the bitterness of the veggie. Truth told, this cumbersome step has stopped this writer from preparing it on more than one occasion.

But wait! While you may want to suck out a little excess moisture—more on that in a minute—there's really no need to combat bitterness, says Saffitz. Most of that unpleasant flavor profile has been bred out of eggplants, and current varieties are totally palatable as-is.

So if you're in a rush, or just don't want to go through the bother of salting your eggplant, you are totally allowed to skip this step. Fried eggplant is great—but proceed with caution.