Like the land of their origin, eggplant are a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Coming in all shapes, forms and colors, they are as varied and beautiful as most flowering plants. Long and skinny in green or violet, tear drop shaped with stripes, deep purple ovals, or actually looking like their name sake, these hot weather lovers are becoming more popular than ever in Iowa.
One expects some quirkiness from the nightshade family, which also gave the culinary world potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, tobacco and the hallucinogenic jimson weed. But even more than its dark cousins, eggplant has always been an exotic addition to the kitchens of the western world. Native to India, it’s a relatively young plant, unheard of before the Christian era. Arab traders brought it to North Africa and Spain in the Middle Ages and to southern Italy, via Sicily in the 15th century. But it took another 300 years to find its way to France and the rest of Europe.
Eggplant’s most distinguishing feature in cooking is its ability to absorb many times its weight in oil. Because of this, the plant is a metaphor for stealth and thievery in Arabic literature, where dowries are sometimes discussed in terms of “enough olive oil to satisfy … eggplants.”
Harold McGee, America’s premiere food scientist, explains this trait more pragmatically. Eggplant is the most absorbent of vegetables “because of the spongy texture of its tissue, a high proportion of its volume consisting of intercellular air pockets.” For chefs, this is crucial. “If it cooks too hot, the heat of the oil will collapse its structure and, like a squeezed sponge, it will give its oil up.”
So low to medium heat is essential in cooking eggplant, in any culture. And, despite its relative obscurity in the West, there is probably no other vegetable that is the focus of so many famous dishes. Let us count the ways. From India and Pakistan there are kharhai brinjal (eggplant in braising dish) and baigan bhartha (pureed eggplant).
From China there is hot braised eggplant in garlic sauce and stir fried eggplant. In Thailand its eggplant curry with coconut milk. In Africa kottu (stewed). In Turkey “imam bayaldi” (stuffed). In Lebanon baba ganoosh (pureed).
Europeans made it the focus of medleys: moussaka in Greece; ratatouille in France; and caponato in southern Italy, where it was also treated to dusting, pan frying and baking, with cheese and tomatoes in Melanzane all’agro’dolce. That dish morphed into melanzane Parmigiano when it moved north to Emilia-Romagna and “eggplant parmesan” in America.
Also known as aubergine, brinjal, magazine, garden egg and patlican, eggplant is truly a vegetable for all cultures. India and China remain eggplant’s largest consumers, but the most sophisticated applications come from southern Italy.
Growing Egg Plant in Iowa
Jill Beebout and Sean Skeehan moved to Columbia two years ago, from Houston, Texas. The 2004 growing season was their first in Iowa and since they grow everything at their Blue Gate Farm organically, they learned by trial and error.
“We started the eggplants in flats and transplanted them to the field on the second week in May. If I had it to do over, I would have used row covers before it got hot, but I didn’t and I ended up with terrible flea beetle problems. I go through the plants every day and smash the bugs, who love to eat the leaves.
“We also learned that of all the varieties, the Orient Express grows best in really hot weather, but I am told this was an unusually hot summer in Iowa, so we will keep using others,“ Beebout said last summer.
Greg Leon and Lena Khatir also grow organic eggplant, in Dallas County for their Elleon Produce farm. They raised two Italian varieties, including listada de gandia and Japanese black, getting all their seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. They had some beetle problems too, but found that spider webs were a big help with that.
“Basically, we used bat guana and compost T for fertilizer and spiders for pest control,” they said.
Xe Vue has probably introduced exotic eggplant to more Iowans than any other farmer. Her stalls at Des Moines” Downtown Farmers Market and at the Thursday night market on Pella’s town square have been fixtures for years. She prefers “tourmaline” and “airplane” varieties and uses cow manure for fertilizer. She has not had any pest problems for years.
John Tharnish and his sister Virginia work the Crooked Creek Farm in Auburn. They grow gorgeous little bambino eggplants, perfect for grilling on skewers, as well as black beauties. They prefer worm casting for fertilizer.
“We start them indoors in good potting soil and transplant them to the field with organic fertilizers only,” Virginia explained, reporting that bugs were not a problem last year for them.
Composite Growing Advice
Eggplant is a cold-sensitive vegetable that requires a long warm season for best yields. They are even more sensitive to cold than tomatoes, so they are best started from transplants. Transplant after the soil has warmed and the danger of frost has passed. Eggplants are slightly larger than peppers and should be spaced slightly farther apart. Given sufficient moisture, they thrives in the heat. The plants tolerate dry weather after they are well established, but need to be irrigated during extended dry periods. Harvest when still glossy.
Shopping Tips
Size matters, but not like you think. The best eggplants are young, small and firm. Older, puffy ones have too many seeds and tend to be bitter. As a rule of thumb, the skin is edible in young plants, but not in mature ones.
Best way to pick a good eggplant is to perform a thumb test. Push on the plant, if it does not give at all, it was picked to early. If it gives slightly and rebounds, it’s a keeper. If it gives and stays indented, it’s a loser. Also, tap on it to make sure it isn’t hollow.
Storage Tips
If at all possible, don’t store them. Eggplants are quite perishable and should be eaten within two days of picking. They also detest cold and don’t keep well in the refrigerator, so, if you must, wrap them well.
Cooking
Eggplant can be baked, grilled, steamed, or sauteed. It loves oil and is works well with tomatoes, onions, garlic and cheese. Because it is so absorbent, it is a perfect main ingredient for curry and stews. The only way eggplant is unacceptable is raw.
“He who has not tasted a Caponato di melanzane,” wrote Gaetano Falzone, “has never reached the antechamber of the celestial paradise.”
Caponato is a medley of vegetables, greens and seafood, with a fried eggplant base. It is usually covered with a sauce of tomatoes, celery, capers, olives, fish roe and crawfish tails. Waverley Root wrote that every part of Sicily had its distinctive caponato and the only thing that they all have in common is eggplant.
Other Italian culinary legends were inspired by eggplant.
“Melanzane all’agro’dolce” comes from the Middle East via Sicily, where all foods are part European and part Oriental. The eggplants is browned in olive oil, then cooked in a sauce of vinegar, chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, pine nuts, walnuts, candied citron, raisins and Marsala wine. Some simplify it by only using sugar and vinegar.
“Melanzane al fun ghetto” is not “eggplant with mushrooms,” but eggplant treated as if it were mushrooms. It is chopped small and seasoned with garlic, then cooked with olive oil and parlsley.
“Melanzane ripiene,” or stuffed eggplant, has a million versions. Most include tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and parley. True Sicilian versions include anchovies. Some stuff the eggplant with eggplant puree, or baba ganoosh.
Seeds
Here are some varieties that did well in Iowa the last two summers. All are available either from http://www.eggplantseeds.com, http://www.eggplantseeds.com or from http://www.seedsavers.org
Long Purple Oriental Eggplant(Brinjal). Native to Pakistan, it has many culinary uses, from tempura and pickling by the Japanese, to stir-frying or for boiling by Chinese, to stuffing and baking by the Indian and Vietnamese. Cooked unpeeled, it is famous in Indian curries.
Applegreen Eggplant. Did well during a cold wet year at Seed Savers when no other eggplant did, these little green babies don’t need much time to mature.
Listada de Gandia from Italy are drop dead gorgeous, with purple and white marbling and Seed Savers reported terrific yields.
Casper. Probably the heartiest of the white varieties, these do best in sauces.
Recipe
Baba Ganoush
Probably the simplest gourmet eggplant recipe is baba ganoush. We prefer this recipe so that the eggplant flavor dominates the sesame. Others call for far more tahini.
3 long skinny eggplant of any variety
juice of two lemons
1 ounce tahini (sesame paste)
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
parsley sprigs
Hold the eggplants over an open flame, or lay on a grill, until both sides of the skin burn and the interior collapses, about 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool for half an hour, or run under cold water till easy to handle.
Peel and put the pulp in a blender or food processor. Add lemon juice while you peel and chop garlic. Add garlic and tahini and puree. Remove to a dish and stir in the olive oil and chopped parsley.
Serve warm or cold with pita bread.
Recipe
Kamal Hamouda’s Grilled Eggplant Sandwich
Kamal developed this recipe at his Phoenix Café in Grinnell.
“It is my idea of comfort food and it has become the best selling sandwich we ever had in the restaurant. The trick is to prepare the eggplant, as eggplant is inherently bitter.”
1 medium sized eggplant
Sea salt
Olive oil
For Spread
Half pound Feta
third cup olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Tabasco
chopped parley
Half pound Feta
Slice eggplant cross wise into three quarter inch sections. Press them between paper towels to dry. Lightly salt them and brush on both sides with olive oil. Grill each side to golden.
You can now reserve them for moussaka or use in sandwiches, preferably with hoagie buns or baguettes. Pita pockets work too.
Make spread by mixing crumpled Feta with olive oil, a drop of balsamic vinegar and a drop of Tabasco. Top with chopped parley to taste. Cover the eggplant with the spread.
Measures and Numbers
1 pound of eggplant equals 3 ½ cups chopped eggplant
1 average-sized eggplant will serve 3 people
1 medium eggplant equals 1 pound
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