mauser
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Location: Forest, Va zone 7a

Do you have and good Eggplant recipes?

I want to justify growing a couple this year but it was never something I grew up with.

HoneyBerry
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Once in a while I buy Eggplant Curry Soup from a deli near my work. It is so good. The eggplant is cooked and then pureed so the soup has a thick and creamy texture. I don't have the recipe, and the deli doesn't share the recipe, but there are many recipe resources available online for eggplant soups.

sepeters
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Location: AZ, zone 9

Eggplant is a summer favorite around here. Here's a few links. All the recipes are vegan, be warned. ; )

Ratatouille takes advantage of the veggies that are the most productive in your garden at the height of summer. Takes a long time to cook, but so worth the wait. Its very forgiving- you can change the amounts of anything, use any kind of summer squash you want. I usually add a bit of broth, as we like ours more stew-y.
https://www.thekitchn.com/one-pot-recipe ... chn-106669

Baba ganoush is similar to hummus. The star ingredient is roasted (or broiled) eggplant rather than chickpeas.
https://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/03/ba ... plate.html

Asian-style eggplant is always a winner. Grilled or broiled eggplant is good with teriyaki sauce, Korean BBQ sauce, General Tso's, or whatever your poison is.
https://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/06/na ... oiled.html

You can use any eggplant for this, just be sure to harvest them while they still smallish and just ripe, they're better tender.
https://www.olivesfordinner.com/2014/06/ ... pZJ81k26M8

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Meatburner
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Location: SW MO zone 6b

We prefer sliced, rubbed with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic then grilled on the Weber. Yum!

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

We eat a lot of eggplant here. Most people like the long green or purple eggplant. It should be shiny if you are using the purple. Pintung long and Waimanalo long are the most common. Asians prefer smaller eggplant so they don't have to cut them as much so they don't brown and turn bitter and they are less seedy. Thai's do like the petch type of eggplant which is small and round but very seedy and slightly tart. They use it mostly for curries. The black beauty type of eggplants can be used for eggplant parmegiana or grilled eggplant or if you are making an eggplant casserole.

To cut down on the bitterness people will salt the cut eggplant to draw out the bitterness. I usually don't do that, I don't like the salt the eggplant absorbs. Instead I use the long eggplant and cut them at the very last minute and use the smaller ones so I usually don't have to cut them more than a couple of times. If I have to cut a lot or do a mis en place. I cut them and put them in water. They absorb more water but I am usually putting them in a stew anyway and eggplant is a sponge it will absorb any sauce you put them in. HInt: eggplant does not have a lot of flavor by themselves, so it is important to have a flavorful sauce since eggplant is a sponge and will pick up flavors from the seasonings and other ingredients.

Eggplant is a popular ingredient around the world in the tropical and subtropical regions.

Eggplant parmigiana
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alex ... ecipe.html

Pinakbet (filipino stew) It tastes better than it looks. There are a few recipes but they use terms you may not be familiar with. Bagaong = fermented anchovy or shrimp paste (it is supposed to stink) you can also use harm ha = Chinese fermented fish paste. It might be easier to find in Chinatown or an Asian aisle. You can use fish sauce, the taste will be a little different. The fish paste and sauce provides the bulk of the flavor and salt for these recipes and is a common Asian ingredient. Calabasa= pumpkin, usually kabocha type, talong = eggplant, kamatis = tomato. Bittermelon is usually always part of this recipe here, but not in this recipe since it was written by a transplanted Filipino chef so he adapted to what was locally available and to suit other tastes. Bittermelon is definitely an acquired taste and you have to know how to cook it.
https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/paul-q ... stew-30379

Filopino omelette torta talong (talong = eggplant) It is usually eaten for breakfast with rice and longanisa (vinegar sausage). You can put crab or minced shrimp in the egg mix if you like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yXiy87G45A

I found this collection. Some of which I have actually done
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/ ... nt-recipes

Eggplant pasta
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... ecipe.html

Eggplant and pork. This is the way I usually make this
https://www.cookinghawaiianstyle.com/com ... k-eggplant

Evil Jungle Prince with chicken and vegetables. I use Keo's Evil Jungle Prince with Chicken recipe and combine it with veggies or you can make a vegetarian version with just the vegetables. I can make the thai curry paste, but I usually buy it. It lasts for months in the refrigerator and you only need a couple of teaspoons of it. Vegetables that you can put in this are eggplant, bamboo shoots, green beans, zucchini, asparagus, baby corn (I use canned ones), straw mushrooms, bell pepper, string beans, water chestnuts, tomatoes ( small cherry tomatoes are best), asparagus, and cucumbers. You can pick the combinations but usually you want to stick to just four or five.
Most people here like the long eggplant instead of the round ones.
https://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolul ... the-World/

Northern Thai eggplant curry (no coconut milk)
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ant-109438

Grilled eggplant a little olive oil and garlic salt with some basil to finish

Spicy garlic eggplant. I usually use a packaged sauce but this was a good recipe because they showed you how to salt and prep eggplant to get the bitterness out which is useful for any recipe where you cut and hold the eggplant a while before adding them in to the recipe. and there are other recipes in the links. Those I have not tried but they look good. This is a side dish I like to get at the local Chinese take out. I don't like Panda Express, it really is not authentic and all the sauces taste the same.
https://omnivorescookbook.com/chinese-eg ... rlic-sauce

Moussaka. I have tried this a couple of times. It was not bad, but maybe I just don't like the Greek style. I think in Greece though they are most likey to be using lamb not beef and the eggplant is a minor player here. But, it might be to someone's liking. It is a popular Greek dish.
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/19644/moussaka/

Baba Ganoush (grilled eggplant dip)
https://minimalistbaker.com/simple-baba-ganoush/

Bhurta (Punjabi Eggplant)
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/80686/indi ... --bhurtha/

When I have eggplant, I will have 4-5 a week ready from just one or two plants. Thankfully, eggplant unlike zucchini are eaten by just about everyone so there are usually takers for the extras. I like recipes where I can use more of them so I use these recipes the most. I usually grow long green or pintung long eggplant. That is why eggplant parmagiano and grilled eggplant are not on this list.
Filipino eggplant omelette (Torta talong)
Japanese Pork and eggplant
Chinese spicy garlic eggplant
Keo's Evil Jungle Prince with chicken and vegetables
If I have a lot of beans to also get rid of then I would make more pinakbet, but I don't like bitter melon very much and here bitter melon is one of the key ingredients.

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rainbowgardener
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eggplant parmesan (already posted) is the ONLY good eggplant recipe! Otherwise, I can't stand the stuff....

pepperhead212
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Many of my favorites have been mentioned already - ratatouille is one I made a lot in the summer, using just eggplant, instead of EP and zucchini, partly because I can't grow zuke (SVBs), but also EP has much more flavor! I also make a delicious ratatouille soup, that can be eaten hot, but I usually eat it cold, and freeze a bunch of it. I use EP in a lot of Indian dishes, as well as Thai dishes, but the recipe I have definitely made more than any other eggplant dish is the following:

Szechwan Eggplant

1/2 lb pork or turkey; ground
3 tb dark soy sauce
1 tb sesame oil
8 scallions; sliced
8 cloves garlic; minced
1 inch ginger; minced
1 lb eggplant; in 3/4 in. cubes
4 tb oil
2 tb chili paste with garlic
1 tb Sugar
2/3 cup water

A. Peel eggplant, if necessary (I rarely do), before cubing, into about 3/4" chunks. Combine meat, soy, sesame oil, and half the scallions in a bowl. Place all ing. in separate piles on a work platter.

B. Heat wok or 10" saute pan over high heat; add oil and heat 30 sec. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry 30 sec. Add chili paste and SF 30 sec. Add meat mixture and SF 2 min., or until red is gone. Add EP, reduce heat slightly and SF 4 min. Add sugar and SF 2 min. longer.

C. Stir in reserved scallions and water. Cover and cook over medium heat 15 minutes, stirring a few times, until the EP is tender. At this point 1/2 lb dry pasta, cooked until quite firm, may be stirred into the dish, then covered and let sit off heat to absorb flavors. Or it may be served as a vegetable dish, with rice and a couple of other spicy dishes. Easily doubled.

mauser
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Location: Forest, Va zone 7a

Thank you all. This is really more than I was expecting.

I'm really starting to like this board.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have one or two eggplant shrubs. I get about 5-8 eggplant every 10 days or so. It is one of my more productive plants. It is also one of the vegetables that is popular here among many different ethnic goups so there are a lot of ways to prepare it. Eggplant parmegiana, unlike Rainbow, is actually one of my least liked eggplant dishes. It is just the best one besides grilling eggplant to use for the Black Beauty type eggplant.

pepperhead212
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I forgot to mention that the last two seasons I harvested so many eggplants that I tried drying them, and it worked out well. I simply cut them to the size I usually use, around an inch, and dry them in my dehydrator. 1 lb reduces to a little less than 1.5 oz. I soak them in hot water, using a weight to keep them under, and use them in dishes in which they are simmered until soft.

imafan26
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I never tried drying them, but the very small varieties can be pickled.

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Gary350
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People around here tell me to cook egg plant like squash. I never grew up with egg plant so I don't know what to do with it.

It is good steamed with onions.

It is good in Chinese stir fly.

I have put it on garden home made pizza.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Eggplant is good in stir fries, casseroles, vegetarian lasagna, grilled, pickled (very tiny ones are used for this). It picks up the flavor of whatever sauce and spices you put it in, so that is the most important thing. We like the skinny long ones like Pintung Long. Eggplant gets bitter quickly when exposed to the air and even from a metal knife. Ceramic knives work better, and salting; draining helps take out the bitterness from the round eggplant when it is sliced. It has a large cut surface and that is mostly why it is less popular here. It is less prep to use the skinny long ones since they only need to be washed and have the caps removed and only have to make one or two cuts. That reduces the cut surface area so if you cut and drop it in immediately it is not bitter. If you are cutting a lot, instead of salting I keep the eggplant pieces under water. I am usually going to use it in a stew so it does not matter that it absorbs the water. When cooking eggplant and gourds you get most of your 'gravy' from the water than comes out of the vegetables.



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