Mashed eggplant

[king cranium maximus IV]

Yeah. Had an odd idea for a stack for dinner tomorrow night: base of mashed eggplant, then some sauteed spinach, then a grilled chicken breast. Just one thing...no clue really how to mash eggplant.

Anyone done it before? Do I need to roast it beforehand, or would steaming it work just as well?

 

[lmcmillan33]

I guess no one else has mashed an egglplant before either.

Personally, I'd just stick with the grilled chicken and skip the other part.

 

[JR]

Mashed eggplant -- Baigan Ka Bharta--is a classic Indian recipe. My co-worker Dinesh brings it in with his lunch as a veggie dip.

Here's a good recipe:

http://www.food-india.com/recipe/R026_050/R050.htm

Not sure about the spinach though. You've got chicken and two mushy veggies.

 

[cranberry]

My wife would have liked this recipe but I'm not going to show it to her because ggplant is a sore topic in the Cranberry household this week. I got a new weedwacker on Sunday and proceeded to take out two eggplants in our vegetable garden, not to mention whipping the crap out of two nearby plastic flower pots.

 

[The Big Ragu]

King, I have made baba ghanoush and eggplant is the main ingredient.

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually. The skin will be a little blackened and the eggplant will shrink. When you take it out, cut off the ends and peel the skin away. The skin should peel away easily if the eggplant is cooked enough. Then just dice the inside of the eggplant into cubes. In the case of baba ghanoush, you add other things (lemon juice, garlic, tahini, olive oil), so I have never just tried this with eggplant. ... but for what you want, all you have to do is take the cubes of eggplant you cut and put them in a blender or food processor and depending on the consistency you want give it anywhere from a whirl or two to make it sort of "mashed" or give it a good blending to make it smooth.

 

[User 1019]

I probably wouldn't mash the eggplant if you're going to put spinach on top of it. I'd grill it. You'd have three completely different textures, rather than the "squishy" spinach atop squishy eggplant.

 

[Magic In The Night]

There is almost nothing better than grilled eggplant when the eggplants are fresh, especially the Sicilian ones. Well, maybe ripe Ohio tomatoes but almost nothing. Just cut the eggplan into like 1-inch high rounds and slather some olive oil on it and put some salt and pepper or maybe garlic salt and grill on a grill or a grill pan.

 

[king cranium maximus IV]

King, I have made baba ghanoush and eggplant is the main ingredient.

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually. The skin will be a little blackened and the eggplant will shrink. When you take it out, cut off the ends and peel the skin away. The skin should peel away easily if the eggplant is cooked enough. Then just dice the inside of the eggplant into cubes. In the case of baba ghanoush, you add other things (lemon juice, garlic, tahini, olive oil), so I have never just tried this with eggplant. ... but for what you want, all you have to do is take the cubes of eggplant you cut and put them in a blender or food processor and depending on the consistency you want give it anywhere from a whirl or two to make it sort of "mashed" or give it a good blending to make it smooth.

Makes sense to me. General idea on temperature?

t_b_f: good point.

 

[The Big Ragu]

King, I have made baba ghanoush and eggplant is the main ingredient.

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually. The skin will be a little blackened and the eggplant will shrink. When you take it out, cut off the ends and peel the skin away. The skin should peel away easily if the eggplant is cooked enough. Then just dice the inside of the eggplant into cubes. In the case of baba ghanoush, you add other things (lemon juice, garlic, tahini, olive oil), so I have never just tried this with eggplant. ... but for what you want, all you have to do is take the cubes of eggplant you cut and put them in a blender or food processor and depending on the consistency you want give it anywhere from a whirl or two to make it sort of "mashed" or give it a good blending to make it smooth.

Makes sense to me. General idea on temperature?

t_b_f: good point.

Oven temperature? Yeah. 400 degrees, preheated.

 

[JR]

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually.

Sorry, are you broiling it or roasting it?

 

[The Big Ragu]

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually.

Sorry, are you broiling it or roasting it?

Really sorry. Roasting. I shouldn't have written broil. It's nothing crazy or difficult. Just preheat the oven and put the eggplant right on the top rack (poke holes in it first with fork). The skin will shrivel as it cooks and peel right off when you are done. The roasted flavor of eggplant, mixed with the garlic in babaghanoush, is one of my favorite taste combos on earth.

 

[The Big Ragu]

By the way. ... Not all eggplant is created equal, at least I think so. The fat purple American eggplant most people are used to isn't nearly as good roasted as the long thin Asian ones that have a sweeter taste.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

I probably wouldn't mash the eggplant if you're going to put spinach on top of it. I'd grill it. You'd have three completely different textures, rather than the "squishy" spinach atop squishy eggplant.

Yes, this. Grill the eggplant in planks, then top with the spinach and chicken. That sounds damn tasty.

I've been doing green and yellow squash planks on the grill, and it's fantastic. Brush with a little garlic butter, some salt and pepper, make some nice diagonal grill marks across. Easy, looks fancy and totally delicious.

 

[JR]

To do that, you roast the eggplant first. It's pretty simple. Poke some holes in the eggplant with a fork. Then put it on the top rack in the oven, with a pan below to catch what falls from it and broil it. I'll roast it for 45 minutes to an hour usually.

Sorry, are you broiling it or roasting it?

Really sorry. Roasting. I shouldn't have written broil. It's nothing crazy or difficult. Just preheat the oven and put the eggplant right on the top rack (poke holes in it first with fork). The skin will shrivel as it cooks and peel right off when you are done. The roasted flavor of eggplant, mixed with the garlic in babaghanoush, is one of my favorite taste combos on earth.

Dips you can easily (and quickly) make at home and for which there is no good reason to buy: babaghanoush,hummus and tzatziki

In every case, the more garlic the better.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

In every case, the more garlic the better.

That would be the title of my cookbook. With few exceptions, all recipes would be better with garlic, and no recipes that include garlic wouldn't be better with more garlic.

 

[Magic In The Night]

By the way. ... Not all eggplant is created equal, at least I think so. The fat purple American eggplant most people are used to isn't nearly as good roasted as the long thin Asian ones that have a sweeter taste.

And if you ever have a Sicilian one, you'll never go back. They're squatty and purple and white. They kind of look like a psychedelic pumpkin. This old Italian guy at Eastern Market turned me onto them a few years ago and if I see them in the stores or anywhere, I buy one.