![]() “Japanese eggplants are pleasantly delicate, and they require little effort to turn the flesh custardy, plus the skin is never leathery or chewy,” says Morocco. Big eggplants need a heavy hand of seasoning to get to the same level. The more balanced ratio of flesh to skin also means it’s easier to properly season. Not many other BA recipes call for salting eggplant before cooking, and that’s because, generally speaking, we favor Chinese and Japanese varieties of eggplant, which don’t have as many seeds (seeds = mush) and therefore have a firmer flesh than globes-and their smaller shape is easier to slice. But it can take tons and tons and tons of flavor.” In his new recipe for spicy braised eggplant noodles, it soaks up an umami blast of tomato paste, gochujang, and miso. “It needs fat, and yet it can quickly turn greasy. “Eggplant wants to soak up things,” test kitchen director Chris Morocco says. Until I consulted with our test kitchen and learned a thing or two about how to cook eggplant, and now I finally feel like I've got the upper hand. (Is it any coincidence that the Italian name for eggplant, melanzana, comes from a Latin phrase for “apple of madness”?!?) The way it soaks up all the oil in the pan, seemingly begging for more, always ends up a mushy, oily mess. The eerie nightshade-did I mention it’s also a berry, a BERRY!-has tried to vex me out of cooking it again and again. In the olden days, when we used to order takeout over the telephone, my aunt always told the restaurant to please deliver to apartment “1E, as in eggplant.” And ever since then the bulbous purple fruit has always held a special place in my heart.Ī place of fear. ![]()
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