Mystery Produce Review: Less Common Eggplants

[hrj]

It's not that I'm dreadfully monotonous in my usual eggplant purchases. Depending on whim (and special pricing) I'll pick up the standard "big purple" variety, the skinny elongated Japanese/Chinese variety, or the cute little miniature Indian variety (yes, I know there are lots of different varieties of eggplants in India, but these are the ones labeled "Indian" in the store). But since the stall at the farmers' market offered all sorts of shapes and sizes at a single mix-and-match price, in addition to a long-skinny-purple and a medium-bulbous-purple, I got one of the pure white egg-shaped ones (well, if we're talking something on the scale of a turkey egg or so) and a medium-sized white-and-purple striped one.

Each was either split in half or in quarters (depending on size), brushed with olive oil, and sprinkled with seasoned salt, then roasted at 350F for about 40 minutes.

Alas, like many other colorful vegetables, they came out of the oven all looking the same, with the variously-hued skins having all turned darkish. I couldn't notice any particular difference in taste between them -- they were all quite delicious, with only a slight variation coming from differences in thickness (and so, in internal heating).

Conclusion: while exotically colored eggplants make for a nice still-life, and are impressive in the market basket, just go for whichever variety is on special and matches the intended use.

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Perhaps when you've got a variety of colours in your eggplants the better choice for preparation would be something quick that doesn't damage the appearance? A quick stir-fry can be done with as little oil as you used for the roasting, but would preserve the colour...

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Nope, afraid it doesn't. (See following comment.)

[kareina.livejournal.com]

lightly steamed? makes other plants more intently whatever colour they started with...

[ichseke.livejournal.com]

re: color after cooking, I was trolling for eggplant recipes the other day & Jack Bishop said basically "they all look the same after they're cooked" and Deborah Madison said more or less "I like to buy a variety but that's so that I can look at them on my counter". I gather some kinds are slightly firmer or sweeter (or larger or smaller) but that's about it. Oh, well.