Kitchen Garden Forum

I have just cleared the greenhouse and have a carrier bag full of medium to large aubergines. Any one suggest how to use and/or store them, do they freeze? Problem is, dont like 'soggy aubergine'! Love the flavour when skined, they reduce down to nothing in a hotpot for instance, enjoy them diced and flash-fried as part of a stir fry when they stay firm, but the soggy in between texture, UGH!!!

CJS

Make a big batch of hotpot, or hotpot base sauce, then freeze that.

CJS wrote:I dont like 'soggy aubergine'! Love the flavour when skined,

Some tips that may help:
- Don't try to cook too many in a small pan at once
- High'ish heat
- Go easy on cooking oil (they will absorb tons -> soggyness & nausea )

One approach that's worked for me is to cut an aubergine into 1-2cm slices. Put the slices in a plastic bag and tip in a few spoonfulls of olive oil - shake them vigoursly. This gives them all a reasonable coating, spread evenly between all slices.

Have an oven warming up to around 180 C whilst you do this. If you have time/room to cook several aubergines, do a separate "bag shake" for each one.

Put the slices on a metal baking tray, with none overlapping.

Bake in the oven for at least 20-30 minutes. Part way through, you can turn if you want, but they may flop as they soften. At this stage, you can:
- Season them, leave them a little longer, then eat as is.
- Take them out and add to favourite dish (Ratatouille etc)

It may seem long-winded. The advantage for us was that we get the taste of the aubergines, without so much oil getting absorbed. Plus you can get on with other things whilst they're in the oven

i would gladly take them off your hands...

i would make baba ghanoush and and imam bayaldi and parmigiana
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/past ... -aubergine

or aubergine curry or stuff them! I love aubergines...

I think aubergines can be quite difficult to store - one reason why I haven't grown any this year, and I do agree with you about their sogginess. We find cutting them into long slices, lightly coating them with oil and then griddling them rather than frying works reasonably well. The slices can then be freeze dried separately and stored in a bag for including a mixed roast vegetable dish later but it's all a bit of a performance, I agree.

mm i have never done this but what about cuting them in long slices and grilling them and preserving them in oil like antipasti? what a nice gift that would be!

Take heed of precautions regarding oil preserving and anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum, which will not mind being under oil. Don't want to give them an inadvertent botox !

god i hadnt even heard of that! I am just obsessed with Ecoli at the moment, I'm over in Berlin visiting my sister for a few weeks :S

Why on earth would anyone do botox if its got that scary thing in it? people are mad...