Re: [CH] Eggplant "Preparation"
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Tue, 13 Aug 2002 16:10:48 -0700
> And I would be sure that this salting process is never done in the Middle
> East or around the Mediterranean. Rob
This would surprise me. I know salting to drain water is performed on
zuchini in certain French recipes, which I imagine are from Provence, so
existence of analagous French things for eggplant seems plausible. And I
have seen a mousaka recipe (don't recall the recipe source, though, except
expecting it was probably some cookbook not random e-mail) which called for
salting eggplant slices to reduce water content, so that subsequent frying
results in firmer texture than if not salted/drained. And I can easily
imagine pickle recipes, presuming eggplant is ever pickled, might call for
extracting some of the water before pickling -- some chile pickle recipes
need this to retain pleasant texture, and eggplant has considerably higher
water content than chiles.
--- Brent