How To Cook Eggplant
How to Cook Eggplant Dishes of the Indian Subcontinent: A Culinary Passage to India
Deciding how to cook eggplant depends both on the type of eggplant you choose and the dish you want to make. Eggplant has increased in popularity in recent years, as people have become more health conscious. This is because eggplant is a great way to reduce high blood pressure.
One of the richest traditions in eggplant cuisine comes from the Indian subcontinent. Before we get to that, however, let’s have a quick primer on eggplant in general.
The Basics of How to Cook Eggplant
The basic idea when it comes to cooking the different types of eggplants is pretty much the same. Take a serrated knife to your traditional globe eggplant to make smaller eggplant wheels. These smaller wheels make eggplant much easier to cook evenly. Just add a little bit of salt and cook it in olive oil until you have browned them like potatoes. Be careful not to overdo it on the olive oil since eggplant is very absorbent and may take on too much of the olive oil’s flavor.
Types of Eggplant
Although most of the recipes in the West tell you how to cook eggplant of the globe variety, there are actually several different types of eggplants from around the world, each used in traditional dishes of that region. We know many eggplants by the countries we associate with their growth and preparation. Thus, there are Chinese, Indian, Italian, Japanese, and Thai eggplants. We know other eggplants by their pigment, which crosses the color spectrum from the White eggplant to the “black” eggplants—Black Bell, Black Beauty and Black Magic eggplants, respectively—although these darker eggplants are closer to the deeper shades of purple than an actually of an ebony hue. In addition, one type combines both country and color, the Sicilian Zebra eggplant.
Each has its own unique qualities when it comes to cooking. Let’s turn now to the Indian and Pakistani approaches to how to cook eggplant.
Indian Eggplant Dishes
Because India is the birthplace of eggplant and because it is such an adaptable vegetable, eggplant is a central ingredient in many Indian dishes. It is so central, in fact, that chefs in this part of the world call it “The King of Vegetables.” You will find eggplant as an ingredient in aachar, chutney, and sambhar. It is also an ingredient in many curries.
One great curry is Baigan Bharta. You bake your Indian eggplant in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for half and hour, then slice it into wheels and mix it with garlic, curry, tomato and jalapeño before frying them in a pan. It is a very yummy hot curry, guaranteed to clear your sinuses.
A couple of other Indian dishes you might look up are Gojju and Brinjal. I would especially recommend Brinjal, which involves mixing your Indian eggplant with coconut, peanuts, and masala and then cooking them up in oil. Delicious!
Pakistani Eggplant Dishes
Although Pakistan and India consider themselves rivals in many things and have nuclear weapons pointed at each other in Cold War style, they agree on at least one area. Both cultures celebrate the wonders of the eggplant. If you are ever in a Pakistani wedding party you will no doubt be served Bengun, which along with the fish dish Hilsa, is a mainstay of the Pakistani wedding ceremony. The wedding chef prepares the Indian eggplant for cooking by tempering it with salt and powdered chili before covering it with bashone, a kind of flour made from crushed chickpeas. Then the chef deep-fries it. The Pakistani’s serve it as a snack.
These dishes from the Indian subcontinent are just the beginning of the many recipes that eggplant makes available to you. In fact, you could make your way around the world via your palate by simply preparing the many worldwide recipes of eggplant dishes. So why not book your passage today.