Chewy eggplant
Posted by volacious.r on Feb 17, 2007 · Member since Sep 2005 · 313 posts
I've tried cooking with eggplant (or aubergine!) a couple times recently (in place of noodles in lasagna and chopped up in soup) and it's turned out rather chewy and awful. Any pointers on how to cook it so it's more tender?
One of the most important things is to slice it as thin as poss. If you want a big slice that will cover a lot of pan, slice it on the vertical, but slice it thin. It will cook faster, and cook all the way thru. Chewyness means it isn't really "done"--and that would explain the awfulness, as the bitter principle doesn't cook out unless it's really done through. Also, underdone eggplant can be very very indigestible, I have heard that it's even toxic.
Oh dear! Toxic?! Well I certainly be slicing my eggplant nice and thinly from now on!
I have found that eggplant needs to marinate before you cook it in either braggs amino or just salty water...
how long would you marinate it/ and how much salt in the water?
i just made a no pasta eggplant lasagna. the recipe told me to sprinkle salt on the slices of eggplant to extract some of the water. (i think that helps reduce some of the amount of cooking time). after about 25 min, i rinsed the salt off and dried the slices w/ a paper towel. i, too, noticed that some pieces were slightly chewier than others and its b/c i couldn't get them all the same thickness. try to cut them as thin as possible otherwise it'll take much longer to cook. anyway, hope that helps. i thought it was really tasty. i think i got the recipe off of fatfreevegan. com and it used a tofu and spinach mixture.
Thanks everyone for the help. ;D
Tuttle: The lasagna I made sounds like the same thing... I thought it was reeeally yummy, but the eggplant didn't cook properly even though I sprinkled it with salt first. :P I guess that next time I'll just have to make the slices very thin and try marinating it instead of just sprinkling it.
how long would you marinate it/ and how much salt in the water?
I usually marinate it for about 10 mins... or however long it takes me to get all the other stuff ready to cook... if using the salt, I put a big table spoon of sea salt to about 1 cup water... then drain before cooking...
The foliage of the eggplant IS toxic. The fruit of the eggplant is NOT toxic. I wouldn't recommend eating raw eggplant, but only because it's kinda bitter and spongy, as you discovered. At one point, ppl thought that eggplants were inedible, but they were wrong. We used to think that tomatoes were poisonous too. Both plants are in the nightshade family, so that may be why they had bad reputations...
Edit:
I stand corrected. The fruit of the eggplant contains solanine, which is a toxic substance found in nightshades. However, raw green pappers & other unripened nightshades also contain a high level of this, and many ppl eat raw green peppers with no problem. Cooking eliminates the solanine. I think the issue is how much you eat... If it's just a little bit, it won't hurt you, and if you eat alot it will give you gastrointestinal unhappiness.
I found info saying that ppl who have arthritis should avoid nightshades altogether, as they may be more sensitive to them.
For years I did the salt marinade thing, but I retain water like mad at the least excuse. When I learned about the thin-slicing thing, I got real brave and didn't salt the eggplant, just sliced it v. thin and trusted to long cooking time. (I was doing the Eggplant Pomodoro on this site and it cooks for like an hour.) No trouble at all as long as it's cooked "well done." I stopped the salt thing and never had any trouble.
Sidenote: if you Do the salt thing weighted in a colander as some books tell you, you will see that it drips a brownish liquid. The bitter principle is in there.