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I picked one of the white eggplants that has been around for a month or so now for dinner last night. I was a bit weary because it was still green, and supposed to be a “white” eggplant, but I’ve heard that over-ripe eggplants are no good. The seeds were QUITE dark, which makes me think that we left it on the plant too long! Plus, it wasn’t very good cooked – very bitter. We ended up getting rid of it.
In a frenzy, I ran outside and picked all of our larger eggplants, just to make sure they weren’t over-ripe. We had one more pink bi-colored eggplant (that’s the purple one…?), and a few black and white eggplants. Chris got home and told me that he thought maybe the eggplants were underripe! Arrgh! According to “the experts” (I really like to refer to “the experts” as often as possible), eggplants are ripe when their skins are “shiny.” I don’t know… they sure look “shiny” to me, but then they’ve always looked “shiny.”
In other news, I brought all of my papaya herbs (trees), grapefruit trees, and medjool date trees into the house tonight instead of putting them back in the garage. They take up the entirety of the new shelving system, and I realize now that if they grow at all over the winter I’m going to have to find some more options. Oh yeah, and I need to buy many, many more lights.
On bitter eggplant… If it tastes bitter before you cook it, you can heavily salt eggplant and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. this draws out some of the bitter juices and also makes it cook up a little firmer. I like to salt any eggplant I cook because of the better texture and flavor you get out of it.