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The other day at the farmers' market I bought a variety of eggplant—Turkish Orange—that I had never seen before. They are a vibrant orange, a little smaller than a tennis ball and hold less water than other eggplants. Nevia No, the farmer selling them, told me she sliced them thinly (using a mandoline) and made eggplant chips (think potato chips). I tried the same and the results were, for the most part, good.
The beautiful orange color and pleasant eggplant flavor survived cooking, but a bitter aftertaste was also present. My initial thought is that this was caused by the skin reacting with the olive oil. I'll do some research, but does anyone have any ideas?
Turkish Orange are also good for stuffing; I may try that over the weekend.
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5 comments:
Eggplant can be pretty bitter naturally. Slice it, sprinkle it with salt, and let it set for a half hour or so. Pour off the liquid that leaches out and rinse the salt off. The bitterness should be substantially reduced.
It's true that eggplant can be naturally bitter, but I fried up a batch of Turkish Oranges and they were sweet and eggplanty, not watery at all and had no bitterness whatsoever.
I just fried them extra virgin olive oil like I would any other eggplant--dusted with flour, dipped in egg and coated with Italian bread crumbs. DELICIOUS!
I would imagine that bitterness varies in part due to soil conditions, growing temperature, etc.
Eggplants are always cut and salted then left for awhile, as the first commenter pointed out. That is standard practice with eggplants. They can also be baked with a splash of olive oil, a little mustard and Parmasan cheese until crispy to avoid a heavy oil..... so good for you!
I've tried a half-dozen or so eggplant varieties, and this was the first one I thought was bitter. It had above-average flavour, otherwise. Maybe it needs aggressive salting.
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