The eggplant has been known to human beings for thousands of years, but was used as a table decoration, at least in Europe. Europeans feared that this beautiful member of the nightshade family caused insanity.
In the New World, however, Thomas Jefferson planted imported eggplants at Monticello by 1812. His kinswoman, Mary Randolph, wrote a book called The Virginia Housewife in 1824 in which she included this recipe (her own spellings remain):
The purple ones are best, get them young and fresh, pull out the stem, and parboil them to take off the bitter taste; cut them in slices an inch thick, but do not peel them, dip them in the yelk of an egg and cover them with grated bread, a little salt and pepper, when this has dried, cover the other side in the same way; fry them a nice brown. They are very delicious, tasting much like soft crabs.
As Randolph suggests, the smaller and younger the eggplant, the fewer seeds.
The big purple American is the most popular in the U.S. Chinese eggplant looks more like a purple cucumber; Italian are smaller, white varieties.
Try this tasty dinner.
Meatless steak: Cut off the sides and slice into four pieces, 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and let stand 20 minutes; rinse and pat dry.
Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco, and brush on the slices. On a baking sheet, bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees, turning once. Then broil 1 minute per side until brown and tender, or grill 7 minutes per side.
If you fry eggplant, be sure to quick fry at a high enough heat or the eggplant will absorb too much oil.
The eggplant makes a hearty, yet low carb, low calorie meal. One cup of eggplant has 20 calories and 2.3 net carbs.
