Eggplant is a curious plant: The only edible member of the nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers) that comes from Asia; where 83% of all the world’s eggplants are grown – take that Eurocentric parmigiana and moussaka. The eggplant contains more nicotine than any other plant we eat; at .01 it isn’t exactly an unfiltered camel, but it’s still cool and refreshing (especially in the form of baba ghanoush).
For the armchair agronomist, the curious question of how a bitter plant propagated from a family that notoriously produces poison came to be a common vegetable is a bit of an enigma. In part because we tend to think or farms and gardens as separate plots of land far from urban environs, located past the suburbs - rather than integrated lots and parcels woven in the urban core. Our current preference that favors sweet over bitter hasn’t always been the case and that coupled with the fact a hearty plant that grows in the meanest of soils, offers fresh veg to even the most nominally green thumbed - All this only partially explains how the plant survives as a modern cultivar.
For a cook, the plant’s odd combination of rubbery skin and spongy interior offers its own challenges. While the skin can be peeled, the aubergine’s flesh is hard to handle: Cooking expels liquids and collapses the cells, allowing the eggplant to drink up any oil or liquid it is cooked with. Meaning there is a thin line between eggplant being a vessel for flavors or a greasy, oily, textureless mess. Most cooks are taught to heavily salt an eggplant to draw out moisture. While food genius, Harold McGee, recommends drying an eggplant out briefly in the microwave. I would recommend buying/growing smaller fresher eggplants that aren’t as jacked up on water and air.
For an eater, especially a Midwestern raised eater, any plant that isn’t part of veg triumvirate of potatoes, corn and canned vegetables is a bit of an outlier. So as my palate has evolved, I am still prone to think of eggplant in the ways it was introduced to me - the aforementioned ghanoush-moussaka-parmigiana, rather than a free-standing veg to be considered on its own merits.
Now comes the part where I actually answer your question. When faced with a problem like this, I always like to fall back to a phrase that is simple enough to fit on a bumper sticker yet useful enough to provide guidance: Things that grow together go together. For a hot climate plant made famous in the Mediterranean you can’t go wrong with lemon and garlic. Add parsley and make Gremolata. Substitute fresh oregano and call it Greekolata: Varriation -mix the lemon, garlic, oregano with yogurt for a dressing – All would be good with grilled eggplant. Or combine with its cousin, the tomato…with pasta – alla Norma - a rich sauce of eggplant, tomatoes and peppers; or sauce it up after it has been fried in olive oil or chicken fried – flour, eggwash, bread crumbs. And use the leftovers as part of the most delicious sandwich ever. The eggplant can’t really be preserved but things like ratatouille or a casserole made with with tomatoes/tomato sauce topped with cheese can be partially baked, frozen and et in the dog days of winter.
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