Eggplant News for You

http://veggietable.allinfo-about.com/recipes/babaganouj.html

Most of what I know about eggplant, I learned from Kev, except the above recipe which I learned from the internet after I got comfortable dealing with eggplant on my own. Baba Ganouj (click above link for recipe) is a delicious dip that you can use like hummus. It is good on skewered chicken, pita bread, vegetables, whatever. The recipe says the yogurt is optional...I used it and it made it nice and creamy. It is a very easy recipe. And it is really delicious. Since you will have to buy tahini, you can make hummus too.

If you are doing a recipe that calls for an "aubergine", that just means eggplant. You will see it that way in European and Indian recipes.

One good thing to do is grill eggplant. It is very good and easy. You just slice it and brush it with olive oil and season it with salt and pepper or whatever you want. Before you cook eggplant, here is a secret: It is a good idea to slice it ahead of time and sprinkle both sides with salt and let it sit for about 20 or 30 minutes. The salt will make the eggplant "sweat," and that makes it much less bitter. When you're ready to cook it, just rinse off the salt and pat the eggplant slices dry with a paper towel.

If there is anything else that I left out, Kev will comment. He is the eggplant man.

Eggplant Update:
Tonight, the show Good Eats on Food Network was all about eggplant. Isn't that weird? Anyway, Alton Brown demonstrated squeezing the moisture out of the sliced eggplant slices after you rinse the salt (see above tip)...that helps keep it from becoming all mushy when it cooks. He had a good marinade recipe for grilled or broiled eggplant, which is probably on foodtv.com. The eggplant parm he did, though, couldn't hold a candle to Kev's.