It’s interesting that neither one of these is a vegetable! Botanically they are both classified as fruit, and the pumpkin is a berry to be exact. So why do we call then veggies? I have no idea, maybe it’s because we have to cook them.
I’ve tried cooking eggplant before and I have yet to be completely satisfied with the results. It’s been decent but not great by my estimation. And I know it can be great, because I’ve tasted great eggplant. So I did some googling, discovered a few things…
I always thought that we salted the cut eggplant to get rid of the bitter taste, turns out that’s not the only reason. It’s also so that it doesn’t become soggy when you cook it. Salting draws out the water, and the more you can squeeze out the better.
Some sites suggested leaving the salted eggplant in a colander all day to get out as much water as possible, other said to add weight so that the water is squeezed out faster. I ended up cooking this one day later than I had planned just so I could start early enough to get out as much water as possible.
I used the weighted method….
I got more water in the plate than I expected, not a whole lot but more than I expected for sure. I also had to pad them dry when it was time to cook ’cause they were still dripping slowly.
The recipe for this side is also from my mother, she gave it to me when I called to thank her for the pumpkin. Perfect timing ’cause I had just bought the eggplant while grocery shopping the day before.
It’s a simple one, all you need is
3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 cup grated pumpkin
1 medium sized white onion, sliced
1 large eggplant cut into pieces suitable for serving (or can use many of the little ones like I did)
cooking oil
Start with the garlic and some water, add the oil. Once the garlic begins to bubble add the onion.
Taste for salt, more if needed, then serve immediately.
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