Do I need to clean the eggplant before cooking? How to clean the eggplant to taste exceeded all expectations! Do I need to clean the eggplant? How to clean the eggplant? What can one cook? All these questions do not give rest to the debutants in the field of cooking. Do I need to clean the eggplant or leave them with the peel? Surprisingly, each person should give an answer to this question on his own. Eggplants do not have to be cleaned. This is done in order to reduce the bitterness in the dish, since there are a lot of spicy and bitter substances in the eggplant peel. In addition, there is another way to remove the bitterness from the product - just soak the sliced ​​pieces in a salty solution. The first option is much easier than the second, and takes less time. That is why most people simply peel the rind off the vegetable instead of soaking it. Sometimes for cooking it is necessary to reduce the bitterness to a minimum, and for this it is necessary to cut the seeds of eggplant, if it is overripe. Fortunately, these are rare cases: if the eggplant is fresh, its seeds do not have a very pronounced spicy taste, so they can be left inside. If you are not accustomed to too spicy and bitter dishes, you are advised to peel the eggplants before cooking or chop them with discs and fry them with the peel, but before serving, peel off the already prepared eggplants. If your goal is a tender stew or caviar, then clean the vegetables before cooking. Instructions "how to clean eggplants" There is nothing difficult in cleaning eggplants. They must first be washed, and later deal with the vegetable, as well as with the usual potatoes. If you have enough young eggplants, then the peel will be very easy to remove. You just need to follow the plan, following step by step: Wet, thoroughly washed eggplant, and towel dry. Remove the top of the vegetable on which the stem is located. If there are any rotten places on the fruit, cut them first, and then proceed to cleaning the whole eggplant. Put the knife to the top and slowly lead from one end to the other, cutting off a thin layer of peel and leaving the pulp as much as possible. Using this method, peel the whole eggplant. That's all, this method is ideal for cooking stews or soup. How to clean the eggplants, if they are stale on the shelf Clean young eggplants is easy enough, but otherwise it is the case with old fruits. They are less amenable to cleaning. Firstly, the skin is much more dense, and it is harder than young vegetables. Secondly, its taste is more pronounced, and to get rid of it, the skin must be removed with the upper layer of pulp. To cope with this difficult task, it is enough to use a little trick: before cleaning, you need to soak the old eggplants in a lightly salted solution. It is prepared according to the proportion: 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 tablespoon of water. If you do not want to prepare a solution, you can simply put the eggplants in the pan, bring to a boil and immediately transfer them to cold water. Then you can easily peel off the peel or leave it. These 2 ways will help get rid of excess bitterness in old eggplants. How to clean the eggplant to get the original dish If you are tired of trivial dishes and want to try something new and interesting, you can try different ways of cleaning and slicing eggplants. Any eggplant can be cut into at least four ways: discs, strips, cubes and just halves. In some case, for cutting, an eggplant without skin will be needed, but in another it may be possible not to peel it off. In addition, eggplant can be used in three versions: cleaned completely, not cleaned and "striped". The last option is suitable for those who like the food to be not only tasty, but also beautiful, because the striped eggplant in the dish will look very original due to this color contrast. A simple recipe for a dish with eggplants. Eggplant is almost a universal ingredient. It can be used as a separate dish, and as an additive to others: stews, caviar, soup, etc. However, those who have never cooked anything from eggplants, it is recommended to try monoblyud from them. We will need 3 eggplants, oil and spices to taste. Clean the eggplants and cut them into disks with a thickness of 5 mm. Grill the pan, pour the oil. Then just lay out the eggplants on it and fry on each side for 3-5 minutes. Then remove the remaining oil and sprinkle with spices. A dish of only 1 ingredient is ready!

Eggplant is a specific vegetable. On the one hand, it produces tasty and unusual dishes, such as products that look like mushrooms. On the other hand, if this vegetable is improperly processed, it is possible to spoil the whole dish, since some eggplants taste bitter, and so much so that they become unsuitable for food.

To avoid this, it is necessary to choose the right eggplant. And it is important to decide in advance what they are for - for cooking, frying or canning.

It is best to eat young fruit. The fact is that in eggplants there is solanine, which in concentrated form is a strong poison. By the way, for the same reason, eggplants are not consumed raw. But this does not mean that you need to completely abandon them.

In young eggplants there is practically no solanine. It accumulates with the growth of this vegetable, when the seeds begin to ripen in it. Therefore, the adult fruit is better not to use in food.

But what if autumn is the most fertile season for collecting eggplants, and they are already adults?

How to choose the eggplant

They must be strong, with smooth skin, without spots and obvious defects. Shriveled, soft food is best not to use.

Eggplant should not be large. Big ones are often overripe, and therefore bitter because of solanine.

Adult eggplant has a hard skin that does not become soft even after cooking. In such instances, hard seeds that spoil the whole dish.

For different eggplant dishes, there are also their own rules for cleaning this vegetable.

But in any case, the eggplants are first washed, then each fetus is cut off with a tail with a sepal and the very tip from the opposite side.

If they are intended for cooking caviar or stewing, then they are cut off the skin. This is done with a peeler or a sharp knife, removing the skin along the vegetable.

From young eggplants, the skin can not be cut off, because it is still soft and not bitter.

Do not remove the skin from eggplants even if they are needed for baking in the form of boats or cups, as the skin helps to keep the shape.

If the dish requires baked eggplant pulp, the skin can also not be removed. For this, eggplants are cut in half, baked, and then the pulp is removed from them with a teaspoon.

But all this applies to eggplants that are not bitter, that is, to those in which there is no solanine. After all, if (in the fruit there is a solanine, then they must first be prepared before being used as food.

How to determine the presence of solanine in eggplant

To determine whether there is solanine in eggplant and whether it will taste bitter, it is enough to cut off a small part of it and wait a few minutes.

Eggplants, in which a large concentration of solanine has accumulated, quickly darken in the air, becoming almost brown on the cut.

Young eggplants without this dangerous substance remain light-colored, unless they can slightly yellow. There are also varieties that are almost devoid of this substance. Such eggplants also do not darken at the cut.

How to remove bitterness (solanine) from eggplant

Eggplant with bitter pulp is first cut into slices, cubes, slices or something else.

Then they are put in a bowl, covered with salt and left for half an hour or an hour. During this time they will give plenty of juice, in which all the bitterness will go.

After that, the eggplants are washed several times in cold water. Almost all the seeds are washed out along with the water from the slices. I must say that in adult eggplant there is a lot of them.

Then the pieces spread in a colander or on a paper towel. You can slightly squeeze. And then cook according to the recipe.

If there are few seeds, and the eggplants are bitter, they are poured with only a small amount of salt, kept for half an hour, then squeezed slightly and cooked further.

If there are seeds in eggplants intended for stuffing, they are removed together with a part of the pulp immediately after the vegetables are cut lengthwise in the form of a boat or across in the form of a barrel.

To remove the bitterness from the eggplants, some housewives are soaked in cold water, adding a tablespoon of salt to a liter of water. After half an hour, the eggplants are drained from the water, dried slightly and prepared according to their favorite recipe.

To easily remove the skin from the eggplant, as well as the bitterness, they are pre-blanched in boiling salted water for five minutes. Then they are removed, doused with cold water and peeled.

September 23, 2013

How to cook eggplant?

The question of how to cook eggplants, confronts almost all beginning cooks, because the vegetable is not easy. In any case, in order to properly prepare eggplants, you need to know certain secrets and tricks.

Eggplant quality is always tough with a glossy, shiny skin. If the eggplant is wrinkled and easily minimized, its purchase is better to refuse.

In addition, you should not take the fruits that have defects similar to those presented in the photo.

As for the size of eggplant, then a lot depends on your taste and how you are going to cook eggplant. So for eggplant caviar is better to take larger fruits with seeds. But frying eggplants, especially on the grill, requires small dense fruits without seeds.

In general, it can be noted that the larger and older the fruit, the higher the likelihood that it will taste bitter. However, large eggplants with seeds turn out to be softer and do not possess the “rubberiness” that some people do not like.

Here we come to the question of bitterness in eggplants. How to remove the bitterness from the eggplant - this is probably the most frequent question asked by novice chefs.

There are several ways to remove bitterness from eggplant. Today we will consider the most effective, with the help of which you can easily get rid of bitterness.

How to get rid of bitterness by boiling?

To remove the bitterness of boiling eggplants, it is enough to cut them in circles or as you like, and put in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

After this simple procedure, the extra bitterness of the cormorants will go away. However, for some this approach does not seem to be enough, and they do the following.

Eggplants are put in boiling water entirely, removing only the stalks from them. After a few minutes, they take it out, but they do not cook it right away, but put the fruit for two hours under a press so that all the moisture comes out of it.

How to remove the bitterness from the eggplant salt?

The first option is to cut the eggplants as you like, and plentifully fill them with salt. Stir, shake hands. When juice is released from the fruit, remove the pieces from the juice. You can put on a paper towel to completely remove all the bitter-salty moisture.

The second option is to soak the sliced ​​eggplants in strong salt water for 30-40 minutes, then squeeze well. Sometimes it is advised to soak just 5-15 minutes.

The third option is the so-called “dry” method, with which you can easily remove the bitterness from the eggplant without water. So, you need to wash and dry the eggplants, then cut and sprinkle with salt. It is best to use coarse salt - since the pulp of eggplant is very porous, fine salt is absorbed very quickly, and you risk getting salty eggplants.

After about 20-30 minutes, liquid will appear on the surface. Once this happens, rinse the eggplants under cold water and dry them with a dry towel. If you do not want to wet the eggplants, remove the salt and moisture with dry paper napkins.

How to remove the bitterness of eggplant without salt?

There are some tricky ways to remove the bitterness from the eggplant without using salt.

The first method: cut the eggplants into small cubes, shift them into a bag and send them in the freezer for 5 hours. How it should look like, look at the photo below.

Next, get the eggplants from the freezer and defrost. Once the eggplants are soft, they need to be squeezed and dried. It should be remembered that the eggplant after the freezer quickly lose their shape and can soften during cooking.

If you do not want to wait for 5 hours, you can try another way. In fact, the main cause of eggplant bitterness is its seeds, so it should be cut in half and completely removed from the seeds. After the seeds are removed, dip the eggplant in cold water for 5-8 minutes. We take out of the water and immediately proceed to their preparation!

And the last, very simple way by which you can easily get rid of the bitterness in the eggplant. In a pot of medium size pour milk. Eggplant cut into small slices and shift to capacity. After 40 minutes, take out the eggplant and dry with a towel or napkin.

Everything. The bitterness of the blue ones is removed in one way or another, now we are answering the next question of novice chefs - is it necessary to clean the eggplants.

Do I need to clean the eggplant?

The need is determined by the way they are prepared. As a rule, eggplants are not cleaned, because when they are peeled when quenched or baked, they turn into a mash. This approach can be used if you need to cook caviar.

Sometimes eggplants are cleaned before frying. Especially if you take very young fruits that do not relieve bitterness, and cook right away. In this case, cleaning the eggplants will also help make them less bitter.

So, the decision to clean the blue or not, made. Now it remains to figure out how to properly clean the eggplant.

How to clean eggplants?

Eggplants can be peeled with a knife, like zucchini or potatoes. But it is not always possible to free the little blue from the skin in such a simple way. For cleaning eggplant large and old there is a more complicated method.

If the eggplants do not want to part with the peel, they should be in a whole form put in salted boiling water (water should cover the fruit completely). Boil for 3-5 minutes, then remove and put in cold water. After that, the eggplant and excess bitterness will go away, and the skin can be easily removed from them.

All the preliminary stages have been completed, now it is time to understand how to properly prepare eggplants.

It is unreasonable to present all sorts of recipes for cooking eggplants in one reference article. Therefore, we simply emphasize the moments that we must bear in mind if we cook eggplants at home.

How to cook fried eggplant?

Cooks call eggplant sponges, meaning that these vegetables can absorb a large amount of oil. Therefore, it is necessary to fry eggplants in a small amount of butter or on a grill without butter at all, otherwise it will be simply impossible to eat them.

How to cook eggplant in a slow cooker?

If we cook eggplants in a multi-cooker on the “quenching” mode, then we don’t add water to them or add quite a bit of water, as the blue ones themselves and other vegetables will give juice, which isn’t going anywhere in the multi-cooker.

How to cook eggplant in the oven?

There are many recipes for cooking blue ones in the oven. But it is important to remember that if you put the whole baked eggplant, then they must be pierced in several places with a fork, otherwise they will explode when baking.

In conclusion, it should be noted. If we cook at home, we need to find a recipe for cooking in which the eggplant will play the first violin. The fact is that eggplant has a bright sharp taste, they clog other ingredients in a dish, so they should not be used as a simple addition to anything.

Many novice housewives, or even some of those who already have any culinary experience, are confronted with the technology of pre-processing of certain vegetables. For example, do you need to clean the eggplant? Does it depend on the choice of dish? How does the taste of food change? Do eggplants clean when they are soaked in brine? This article provides tips on these issues, which will allow you to get dishes with pleasant savory undertones.

Do I need to clean the eggplant? Highlights

The technology of processing blue ones sometimes involves removing the dark skin from the fruit or removing the seeds inside. What is it done for? The fact is that the top layer of eggplant is the most saturated with the tart spicy taste characteristic of this vegetable. Therefore, in order to somewhat soften the excessive spice or peel the fruit, or soak the blue ones in cut form for some time in a saline solution. Many housewives in order to save time choose exactly the first method of processing. As for the seeds, their removal is necessary when the fruit is over-ripe. Often when they are cut into pieces, a slightly burst middle with dark seeds is found inside. In this case, you can try to slightly peel off the small grains with a sharp knife or cut them off with a small grip of the pulp.

Do I always need to clean the eggplant?

The choice of vegetable processing method often depends on the taste of the dish you want to get. Do you like spicy and savory combinations? Then do not remove the peel. Its presence will give the necessary flavors. But if your goal is to get tender, then it is better to use only fleshy pieces without seeds or peel.

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Do I need to clean eggplants of small size and in the initial stage of maturity?

The exception is the young fruit. They always have inconspicuous bright sunflower seeds and a soft, bitter-free skin. Therefore, they are usually cut immediately, without cleaning off the dark shell. In any case, the taste of the dish is pleasant and tender.

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Cooking fried blue

Do I need to clean the eggplant before you put them in the pan in the hot oil? Let's take a closer look at the stages of cooking this most common dish of blue ones. To get even and whole pieces after frying, you still should not remove the top shell from the fruit. Slice young eggplants into thin slices and fry them, pre-paned in flour, egg or cheese. Old fruits (slices, circles, pieces) soak for some time in a cold, weak brine solution (1 liter - 1 incomplete v. L.). After 30 minutes remove them and let them drain. Several other processing options are possible. Pour the plates with salt and lay a pressure on them. After 15-20 minutes rinse the eggplants with water and fry in the chosen manner.

For every novice cook, cooking is like playing the lottery: you can never say with confidence that the dish will be tasty, because there are products whose taste can be spoiled simply by choosing the wrong pre-processing method.

That is why many culinary novices the most common eggplant enters into a stupor.

Do I need to clean the eggplant? How to clean the eggplant?

What can one cook? All these questions do not give rest to the debutants in the field of cooking.

Do I need to clean the eggplant or leave them with the peel?

Surprisingly, each person should give an answer to this question on his own. Eggplants do not have to be cleaned. This is done in order to reduce the bitterness in the dish, since there are a lot of spicy and bitter substances in the eggplant peel. In addition, there is another way to remove the bitterness from the product - just soak the sliced ​​pieces in a salty solution.

The first option is much easier than the second, and takes less time. That is why most people simply peel the rind off the vegetable instead of soaking it. Sometimes for cooking it is necessary to reduce the bitterness to a minimum, and for this it is necessary to cut the seeds of eggplant, if it is overripe. Fortunately, these are rare cases: if the eggplant is fresh, its seeds do not have a very pronounced spicy taste, so they can be left inside.

If you are not accustomed to too spicy and bitter dishes, you are advised to peel the eggplants before cooking or chop them with discs and fry them with the peel, but before serving, peel off the already prepared eggplants. If your goal is a tender stew or caviar, then clean the vegetables before cooking.

Instructions "how to clean the eggplant"

Cleaning eggplants is no big deal. They must first be washed, and later deal with the vegetable, as well as with the usual potatoes. If you have enough young eggplants, then the peel will be very easy to remove. You just need to follow the plan, following step by step:

Wet, thoroughly washed eggplant, dry with a towel.

Remove the top of the vegetable on which the stem is located.

If there are any rotten places on the fruit, cut them first, and then proceed to cleaning the whole eggplant.

Put the knife to the top and slowly lead from one end to the other, cutting off a thin layer of peel and leaving the pulp as much as possible. Using this method, peel the whole eggplant.

That's all, this method is ideal for cooking stews or soup.

How to clean the eggplant, if they are stale on the shelf

It is easy to clean young eggplants, but the situation is different with old fruits. They are less amenable to cleaning. Firstly, the skin is much more dense, and it is harder than young vegetables. Secondly, its taste is more pronounced, and to get rid of it, the skin must be removed with the upper layer of pulp.

To cope with this difficult task, it is enough to use a little trick: before cleaning, you need to soak the old eggplants in a lightly salted solution. It is prepared according to the proportion: 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 tablespoon of water. If you do not want to prepare a solution, you can simply put the eggplants in the pan, bring to a boil and immediately transfer them to cold water. Then you can easily peel off the peel or leave it. These 2 ways will help get rid of excess bitterness in old eggplants.

How to clean the eggplant to get the original dish

If you are tired of trivial dishes and want to try something new and interesting, you can try different ways of cleaning and slicing eggplants. Any eggplant can be cut into at least four ways: discs, strips, cubes and just halves. In some case, for cutting, an eggplant without skin will be needed, but in another it may be possible not to peel it off. In addition, eggplant can be used in three versions: cleaned completely, not cleaned and "striped". The last option is suitable for those who like the food to be not only tasty, but also beautiful, because the striped eggplant in the dish will look very original due to this color contrast.

A simple recipe for dishes with eggplant

Eggplant is an almost universal ingredient. It can be used as a separate dish, and as an additive to others: stews, caviar, soup, etc. However, those who have never cooked anything from eggplants, it is recommended to try monoblyud from them.

We will need 3 eggplants, oil and spices to taste. Clean the eggplants and cut them into disks with a thickness of 5 mm. Grill the pan, pour the oil. Then just lay out the eggplants on it and fry on each side for 3-5 minutes. Then remove the remaining oil and sprinkle with spices. A dish of only 1 ingredient is ready!