My usual way to cook eggplant is to slice it, rub it with a little olive oil, add salt and pepper and then grill it on the bbq. We love it that way, especially if we make some homemade aoli to top it off. Recently, we saw a new technique (to us) and thought we would try it, burnt eggplant. I have roasted hundreds of peppers on the stove, but never eggplant. It is not hard to cook over a gas stove or over a bbq grill and it really does give the eggplant a nice, smoky flavor.
The technique involves putting aluminum foil over the burners, then placing the eggplant over the aluminum foil over a medium flame for about 15 minutes. The skin will burn and be flaky. The flesh will be soft. You will notice that I did not use the foil. It was taking too long for me so I disposed of it. Once it cools down, remove the skin. I actually used a big spoon to scope out the flesh. So what does one do with burnt eggplant? Here are a few suggestions.
- Mash the eggplants, then add some fresh lemon juice, red onions, salt and pepper to it. Serve with rice.
- Cut slits in the eggplant and stuff with garlic before roasting. Drizzle with olive oil, chopped cilantro, chopped onions and hot peppers
. Add salt and pepper to taste. - Make Baba Ganoush!
- Make Burnt Eggplant with Garlic, Lemon and Pomegranate Seeds (from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghini and Sami Tamimi).
We made the Burnt Eggplant with Garlic, Lemon and Pomegranate Seeds. It was very good!
A special thank you to my friends, Rick Devera and Angie Thomas, for their delicious ideas for using burnt eggplant.
If you have used this ingredient in the past, I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below. 😃
