mozzarella? I can get that. Breading and deep-frying? A
bit messy, but nothing overwhelming. But properly
cooking eggplant? Not so simple. Even if you manage to
purge the slices properly of their bitter liquid (not an easy
task), they’re still so airy and spongy that they instantly
absorb any and all oil. Cook them too much, and they
turn to mush. Don’t cook them enough, and they are
tough, with a tannic, astringent bite.
What happens if you try to fry plain raw eggplant? To
find out, I weighed out a 24-gram slice of eggplant and
placed it in a bowl of oil. Twenty minutes later, I weighed
it again.
As you can see, it absorbed a full 92 percent of its
weight in oil! If you’ve ever tried sautéing raw eggplant,
you know that it almost instantly absorbs all the oil in the
pan, sticks to the bottom, and burns. Like a sponge, the
cells of the slices are held together in a very loose
network with plenty of air in between. Before you can
even think about cooking them, you need to figure out a
way to remove that air.
nandana
(Nandana)
#1