Eggplant

The Fried and the Prejudice

When my baby cooks her eggplant

She don’t read no book.

She’s got a Gioconda

Kinda dirty look.

I can’t reveal her name

But eggplant is her game.

--”Eggplant,” by Michael Franks

*

You say you have an eggplant problem? It’s spongy, bitter and bland, and you just don’t know what to do with it?

If so, you’re not alone. For more than 1,000 years, as eggplant spread west from India, it was often viewed with puzzlement, suspicion and outright distaste. But like Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice,” eggplant is rich and improves on acquaintance.

We went through the discovery process in my own family. A garden book recommended eggplant for our climate, so my mother planted some in the backyard. How right the book was. The eggplants flourished, and the next spring more of them popped up all over the garden like weeds. There were so many I remember my father demonstrating his old college football skills by dropkicking one over the back fence.

It would have been a bonanza except that, to my mother’s grief, she couldn’t get us to eat eggplant the only way she could think of cooking it. Fried eggplant was just too bitter for us. But then she discovered a recipe for ratatouille, a stew of eggplant with tomatoes, onions and sweet peppers, and we learned to appreciate its plush, sophisticated flavor.

Eggplant’s original home was Southeast Asia, where the greatest number of eggplant varieties are still grown. Recently we’ve been seeing some tiny white and green Thai eggplant varieties in our supermarkets. The Thais even cook some yellow-skinned wild cousins of eggplant.

The bitterness in eggplant’s flavor is valued in Southeast Asia, and the tiny ones are used in cooking to give a bitter accent to soups and curries. As eggplant spread west, though, bitterness proved an obstacle to acceptance. It was the larger, sweeter varieties that spread, and even they had a hard time of it.

The spongy, corpse-like look of eggplant flesh didn’t help its popularity either, nor did the fact that everybody could tell at a glance that it’s a member of the nightshade family. (Wherever eggplant spread in Central and West Africa, people called it by the same name as the local species of nightshade.) It was common knowledge everywhere that many nightshades are poisonous.

So when eggplant reached the Middle East 1,000 years ago, it’s not surprising that the most famous physicians of the Middle Ages warned against it. Avicenna claimed it caused melancholia, and Rhazes cautioned that it inflamed the blood and caused pustules in the mouth. It was widely believed to cause cancer, insanity and freckles.

By the time it reached Italy, it was being blamed for all sorts of things. The 16th century Italian physician Castore Durante wrote that eating too much eggplant caused melancholy humors, cancer, leprosy, headaches, hardening of the liver and spleen and long fevers . . . and was bad for the complexion, possibly that freckle story again.

But eggplant wouldn’t have reached Europe at all if there hadn’t been a lot of people along the way who agreed with the 10th century Syrian poet Kushajam: “The doctor makes ignorant fun of me for liking eggplant, but I will not give it up. Its flavor is like the saliva generously exchanged by lovers in kissing.” (And you thought there were no racy poems about eggplant.)

It all depended on whether there were any good recipes for eggplant. Back when Durante was blaming eggplant for everything under the sun, for example, Italian cooks knew only a few boring ways to prepare it. Mostly they boiled it and served it with salt, pepper and oil, the same way they served mushrooms. If there’d been any eggplant Parmigiana in those days, the doc might have sung a different tune.

Although eggplant seems a cooking challenge to a lot of people, it’s actually extremely versatile and has been cooked in myriad ways. In ancient India, eggplant was usually cut up and stewed along with other vegetables or cooked whole until soft and pureed. The Middle East took up the puree idea, usually exploiting eggplant’s affinity for nut flavors. The ancestor of today’s baba ghannouj was flavored with ground walnuts instead of tahineh.

It seems to have been in the Middle East that cooks first systematically cultivated the sweet, smoky flavor of fried eggplant, salting the slices first to reduce the bitterness and moisture level. No vegetable has as concentrated a flavor as eggplant fried good and brown, and it’s no coincidence that Cairo street merchants announce eggplants for sale by crying, “Ya ‘arus el-qaleyya” (the bride of the frying pan).

Moorish Spain provides the first recipes for stuffed eggplant. One of them calls for eggplant to be stuffed with meat and, in the same dish, the reverse: pieces of stewed eggplant covered with ground meat.

The cuisine of the Ottoman Empire was obsessed with making stuffed vegetables (dolmas). Today, in Turkey and adjoining countries, people often preserve their summer crop by hollowing the eggplants, using what they’ve removed to make eggplant purees like hunka^r begendi for immediate use. Then they hang the eggplant shells from clotheslines to dry, so they’re ready for instant stuffing all year long.

Provence has given us ratatouille, but it’s in Turkey and Italy that eggplant has most memorably teamed up with its New World cousins of the nightshade family, peppers and tomatoes. There are eggplant Parmigiana, where eggplant stands in for lasagna in a baked pasta dish, and all the moussaka-type stews of the Middle East.

It’s cooked with rice and other grains in Africa from Madagascar to Nigeria. Some of these recipes have made their way to the New World along with the eggplant version of akra, the West African fritter of pureed vegetables. In Brazil and the Caribbean, you find dishes of eggplants and shrimp that have clear African roots.

Musky, nutty flavors seem to be eggplant’s cup of tea. It goes well with cheese, as in the Sephardic specialty almodrote de berenjena, a garlicky eggplant gratin. Chinese cooks emphasize its flavor with dark bean sauces.

But purely sweet flavors, even from root vegetables such as carrots, don’t seem to fit its flavor profile. In fact, “to candy an eggplant” (candire un petonciano) is a proverbial Italian way of describing an utterly ridiculous project.

On the other hand, in Greece they make an eggplant jam, gliki melitzanis. You may say it’s ridiculous, but it goes to show that, like Mr. Darcy, eggplant is capable of surprising things when the motivation is there.

EGGPLANT WITH WALNUTS AND SOUR POMEGRANATE (Khoresh-e Anda^z)

With its pomegranate and walnut flavoring, this is in effect a vegetarian version of the Iranian stew fesenjan. Serve with rice. Pomegranate syrup can be found in most Middle Eastern markets.

Oil

1/2 cup chopped onions

10 ounces walnut meats, about 2 3/4 cups

Juice of 2 to 3 lemons or limes

2 tablespoons sour pomegranate syrup

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper

Cinnamon

5 Japanese eggplants

Water

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in skillet and fry onions golden brown. Remove onions and set aside.

Chop walnuts medium-fine. Sprinkle with lemon juice, pomegranate syrup, turmeric, salt, pepper to taste and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Add to oil in skillet. Cook over medium-low heat until raw walnut flavor goes away, about 10 minutes; stir often and watch carefully to prevent scorching. Remove walnuts and set aside.

Peel eggplants. Slice each eggplant lengthwise twice from blossom end almost to stem end, making 4 finger-like slices attached at base. Scrape seedy flesh from “fingers.” Fry eggplants in 1/4 cup oil until golden.

Add reserved onions and walnuts with dash cinnamon and cook slowly, uncovered, adding water as needed, about 20 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

154 calories; 395 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 14 grams fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.47 gram fiber.

HAITIAN EGGPLANT PILAF (Diri ak Berejenn)

This is a first cousin to the Cajun eggplant-and-sausage jambalaya, but it’s a little spicier.

1/3 pound bacon, cut into 1/2-inch slices

5 to 6 ounces pepperoni, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/2 cup diced onions

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup diced bell pepper

1 to 2 serrano or other hot chiles, seeded and minced

1/4 cup chopped celery

1 cup rice

2 1/2 cups water plus more if needed

2 teaspoons salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 medium eggplant, 1 to 1 1/4 pounds, cut in 1-inch dice

Juice of 1 to 2 limes

Fry bacon and pepperoni together in skillet, stirring occasionally, until bacon is practically brown. Use slotted spoon to remove bacon and pepperoni to paper towels and let drain.

Strain fat from skillet and strain through paper towel into heat-proof measuring cup. Pour 1/4 cup of strained fat into 4-quart casserole and fry onions, garlic, bell pepper, chiles and celery until onions are transparent.

Mix in rice thoroughly. Add water, salt, cloves, eggplant chunks, fried bacon and pepperoni. Stir well, cover and cook over low heat 45 minutes, removing cover and stirring at 15-minute intervals. Add water if pilaf is getting too dry; pilaf should end up moist but not runny.

Before serving, add lime juice.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Each of 6 servings contains about:

350 calories; 1,407 mg sodium; 31 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 30 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams protein; 1.06 grams fiber.

OIL-CURED EGGPLANTS (Makdous)

These eggplants develop a rich and fascinating flavor, partly because of the absorption of oil. They are not actually pickled, however, and do not keep long.

1 pound Japanese eggplants

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons salt

1 heaping tablespoon ground walnuts meats

Cayenne

Olive oil

Poach eggplants in boiling water until softened. Remove and allow to cool. Slice eggplants from blossom end to 1/2 to 3/4 inch from stem end. Allow to drain.

Crush garlic with salt and mix with walnut meats and cayenne to taste. Divide mixture by number of eggplants and rub inner surfaces of eggplants with mixture. Place eggplants in sterilized jar, stem ends up. Cover jar and leave at room temperature overnight.

Next morning, add oil to cover and cover jar tightly. Leave in cool spot or refrigerate until rich flavor develops, 10 to 14 days, then refrigerate. Will keep in refrigerator 2 to 3 weeks.

Cures about 8 eggplants.

Each eggplant contains about:

75 calories; 592 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.58 gram fiber.

CALIFORNIA BARBECUED EGGPLANT

VINAIGRETTE

1/4 cup oil

1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Salt, pepper

2 teaspoons capers

Mix oil, vinegar, garlic, cayenne and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in capers.

EGGPLANTS

1 1/4 pound Japanese eggplants

Salt

Baby salad greens

Slice eggplants lengthwise and rub with salt. Let stand 20 minutes, then rinse and pat dry. Grill on barbecue until softened. Serve on baby greens and sprinkle with Vinaigrette.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

106 calories; 112 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.96 gram fiber.

STEW CAKE WITH OIL-CURED EGGPLANTS (Fettet Makdous)

This is a somewhat complicated dish, and it requires starting the eggplants about two weeks beforehand, but the result is gratifyingly impressive. Check the ingredients label on the yogurt. This dish will be much better if the yogurt does not contain a thickener such as tapioca or gelatin.

THICKENED YOGURT

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 quart tart unflavored yogurt

2 cloves garlic

Stir salt thoroughly into yogurt. Line colander with clean piece of cloth and pour yogurt into it. Cover top of colander with wax paper and set over sink to drain 24 hours. Scrape thickened yogurt off cloth and store in refrigerator, covered, until ready to use. Before using, mix with crushed garlic.

STEW

1/2 cup butter

1 pound beef or lamb stew meat

1/2 cup minced onions

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cups water

Melt butter in small pan. Skim froth from top and carefully pour butterfat (clarified butter) from watery whey layer. Discard whey.

Fry meat and onions in butter until browned. Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, tomato paste and water and stir well. Raise heat to boiling, reduce to medium and cook until meat is tender and sauce reduced by 1/2, about 45 minutes. Keep warm.

ASSEMBLY

6 loaves pita bread

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 cup minced parsley

2 Oil-Cured Eggplants

Olive oil, or oil from Oil-Cured Eggplants

Lemon wedges

Split each pita open and separate in two. Toast pita bread, tearing into smaller pieces if necessary. Arrange toasted pita bread on large serving platter.

Toast pine nuts in skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until golden brown. Pour onto plate to cool.

With slotted spoon, remove meat from Stew. Mix liquid part of Stew with pita bread, moistening thoroughly.

Spread Thickened Yogurt over pitas. Sprinkle minced parsley over yogurt. Arrange meat from stew on parsley. Separate each Oil-Cured Eggplant into 4 long pieces and arrange in star pattern on top of meat. Sprinkle toasted pine nuts over eggplants. Present at table and serve guests with serving spoon. Drizzle each serving with oil and serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

522 calories; 1,030 mg sodium; 75 mg cholesterol; 34 grams fat; 38 grams carbohydrates; 22 grams protein; 0.46 gram fiber.