Eggplant: The Eggplant Guide for Every Beginner
How to choose fresh eggplant?
Where is the best place to store it?
What do you make from Thai eggplant?
And what other types of eggplant are on the market?
Carmela's experts answer all our questions
Walla!
Food
09/02/2022
Wednesday, 09 February 2022, 08:50 Updated: 08:51
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Greenhouse eggplants are best known but they are not the only ones on the markets (Photo: ShutterStock)
The eggplant fruit, yes botanically it is a fruit in general, is one of the favorites of local cuisine and Israeli cuisine.
Already in the cookbooks of the fifties it starred as a recommended substitute for chopped liver, but while a wide variety of recipes and dishes such as the eggplant salad in the famous mayonnaise and later also in the sabih dish which is its main star, in Greek mosca and balsamic.
We love it stuffed with meat like in a froth from the Tripolitan kitchen and relish the roasted eggplant on the fire with lots of tehini.
More on Walla!
A guide to the perfect khomin by Ruthie Russo
To the full article
It is impossible to open a table without it.
Eggplant on the fire (Photo: Afik Gabay)
In recent years new dishes with eggplant have been added to the local culinary consciousness thanks to popular restaurants like Thai House and Cub Kam and their famous eggplant curry, but they are not the only ones.
Local growers began to grow more types of eggplant according to the growing demand and so to the bloody eggplant and the more familiar greenhouse eggplant, joined eggplants in different sizes and shades suitable for making different dishes.
Melanzana.
Eggplant with tomatoes and cheeses from Italian cuisine (Photo: Walla !, Ayala Jenny)
What eggplants can be found in the markets today?
What is made of them?
How can fresh eggplant be identified and how best to store it?
Naor Hassid, co-CEO of Carmela
, the fruit and vegetable store, explains and answers.
Types of eggplants available in the markets:
Greenhouse eggplant
- there is no Sabih without a slice of it, there is no Baba Ganush without it.
Great for roasting, roasting, frying and steaming.
The classic eggplant that stars in Israeli cuisine.
It is usually customary to slice it before use, sprinkle salt on it and let the bitterness come out.
In quality varieties, light in weight and without seeds - you can give up salting.
Baby
Eggplants - The little brothers of the greenhouse eggplant, great for pickling, filling, roasting and even jam.
Comes in a variety of colors:
Black baby eggplant
- everything you love about eggplant, in a mini version.
Great for pickling, filling, roasting and even jam.
Mottled
Baby Eggplant - Baby Italian eggplants mottled in purple and white, absorb less oil than regular eggplant and are therefore excellent for frying.
White baby eggplant
- with a sweet core and a shiny white rind, is just a celebration.
Especially great for cooked or baked dishes and even in various pasta dishes.
Your eggplant in a curry dish.
Green Thai eggplant (Photo: Courtesy of Carmela)
Bloody eggplant
- bigger, plump but still handsome, selected and fine, with a stronger flavor and less spongy than its greenhouse eggplant sibling.
Great for roasting on a barbecue or on an open flame and excellent for filling.
Thai eggplant (Makhuea pro)
- small and bastard the size of a ping-pong ball, in different colors (green, purple, white, micro white) with a slightly harder texture than regular eggplant.
It is great for short cooking alongside curry dishes or even "live" as an accompaniment to particularly spicy dishes.
Japanese eggplant
- a long eggplant, with a thinner and finer rind and a sweeter taste.
It can be cooked with or without the peel, it is great for grilling, making eggplant cream or even pickling.
Especially love the seasoning of ginger, soy and garlic.
Micro white Thai eggplant (Photo: Courtesy of Carmela)
What is the best season to get eggplant?
"The eggplant is a local crop and it is not customary to import it. It is at its best from the spring season until the middle of winter," Hassid explains.
"In the hot season eggplants are grown in the open and in the cold season they are grown in protected areas and low greenhouse tunnels."
How to choose eggplant?
"The goal is to choose the freshest eggplant - the older the eggplant, the more bitter it will taste. Fresh eggplant can be identified by a number of signs."
Gloss
-
The brighter the eggplant, the fresher the brown color indicates freshness.
*
Stalk
- it should be green, fresh and slightly prickly and prickly.
*
Weight
- The lighter the eggplant in weight and without seeds, the sweeter it is.
How long can eggplant be kept and what is the best way to do it?
"The eggplant has a shelf life of about a week. In the winter, eggplants can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days. In the summer, the eggplant must be refrigerated. Also, the smaller the eggplant, the shorter its shelf life is. Softens quickly. "
Tip
- Wrap the eggplant in cling film and keep it in the refrigerator to extend its shelf life.
Great for frying.
Mottled Italian eggplant (Photo: Courtesy of Carmela)
How to properly cook the eggplant?
The various eggplants can be steamed, fried, baked and lightly.
They are then incorporated into salads, stews and a variety of different dishes.
Baking
- It is recommended to bake the eggplant when it is halved, cut or sliced, smeared with olive oil and a little coarse salt on it at a high heat of 200-220 degrees.
Frying
- When frying, it is recommended to use an eggplant that has as few seeds as possible.
Since the eggplant absorbs a lot of oil before frying, it is best to salt it and dry it.
Then fry the eggplant in deep, hot oil.
The unique varieties of eggplant (Thai and Asian for example) are excellent for frying and absorb less oil.
Roasting
- The eggplant is recommended to lighten over an open fire on an iron mesh.
This method is the most recommended but also very dirty.
Roast the eggplant on all sides for about 10 minutes, cool and then remove the peel.
It is recommended to transfer the eggplant flesh to a colander on a colander to strain the juices that flow from it after roasting.
You can also slightly perforate the eggplant and lighten it in a high heat oven in grill mode (this method takes about 40 minutes).
Steaming
- In a bamboo steaming pot or in a double boiler, sauté the eggplant until soft.
It is then recommended to combine it with tomato-based sauces or soak in marinade.
In Indian cuisines you can find marinades rich in ginger, chili, onion and coriander served with eggplant.
The guide was written with the help of the Carmela team, where all types of eggplant can be obtained.
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Eggplant