I don’t know about freezing it either, that comment about the small roasted batches seems like it might be promising? Or making it into a pasta sauce with tomato and freezing that. Ottolenghi Test Kitchen also had an eggplant pickle. Hetty McKinnon in her book or NYT has a beautiful steamed eggplant sprinkled with ginger, garlic and scallions and hot oil to die for. I love eggplant so much, good luck! Hopefully you have neighbors who love it as well!
I’ve had meh success with freezing eggplant dishes. I’ve tried baba ghanoush, eggplant burgers, and caponata. This year I am going to try ajvar (Balkan eggplant and pepper caviar) and see if it holds up better. If you have successes I hope you can share because eggplant is my favorite vegetable and one I would love to preserve more.
Re eggplants: we have Turkish friends who will buy cases of eggplant when they come in, halve and grill them till they’re soft, and then scoop out the innards and freeze in measured portions to use later in whatever recipes they want. One that I had, which was wonderful, was their version of Imam Bayildi.
This is, of course, just kicking the problem down the road! But at least you’ll get a little break from eating eggplant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner while it’s coming in hard.
We used to be able to buy frozen breaded eggplant slices. During the pandemic, they disappeared, first from Trader Joe’s and then from the regular supermarket. We were super sad because we lost one of our best dinner cheats: layer the eggplant slices, frozen mozzarella sticks, and our favorite tomato sauce in a baking dish and bake into a great approximation of eggplant parm.
I will kick these eggplants as far down the road as humanly possible! I've always thought the cruelty of eggplants was that they taste best in hearty dishes like parm and tagines and curries and things, but they grow when it's so hot I don't want to use the stove. This at least solves that problem! ;)
One more: https://alexandracooks.com/category/csa/eggplant/
I don’t know about freezing it either, that comment about the small roasted batches seems like it might be promising? Or making it into a pasta sauce with tomato and freezing that. Ottolenghi Test Kitchen also had an eggplant pickle. Hetty McKinnon in her book or NYT has a beautiful steamed eggplant sprinkled with ginger, garlic and scallions and hot oil to die for. I love eggplant so much, good luck! Hopefully you have neighbors who love it as well!
I’ve had meh success with freezing eggplant dishes. I’ve tried baba ghanoush, eggplant burgers, and caponata. This year I am going to try ajvar (Balkan eggplant and pepper caviar) and see if it holds up better. If you have successes I hope you can share because eggplant is my favorite vegetable and one I would love to preserve more.
Re eggplants: we have Turkish friends who will buy cases of eggplant when they come in, halve and grill them till they’re soft, and then scoop out the innards and freeze in measured portions to use later in whatever recipes they want. One that I had, which was wonderful, was their version of Imam Bayildi.
Awesome, thank you!
This is, of course, just kicking the problem down the road! But at least you’ll get a little break from eating eggplant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner while it’s coming in hard.
We used to be able to buy frozen breaded eggplant slices. During the pandemic, they disappeared, first from Trader Joe’s and then from the regular supermarket. We were super sad because we lost one of our best dinner cheats: layer the eggplant slices, frozen mozzarella sticks, and our favorite tomato sauce in a baking dish and bake into a great approximation of eggplant parm.
I will kick these eggplants as far down the road as humanly possible! I've always thought the cruelty of eggplants was that they taste best in hearty dishes like parm and tagines and curries and things, but they grow when it's so hot I don't want to use the stove. This at least solves that problem! ;)
So many exciting new cookbooks to choose from!!
Holy shit, that High-Altitude book. Not only do the contents sound amazing, it’s available FOR FREE to download?!
Gotta love a university extension cookbook!!!
Other free resources:
LA Times
Smitten Kitchen
Food 52 burnt eggplant and tomato tahini adapted from Test Kitchen -- going to make that this week with pasta
https://www.lukasvolger.com/recipes/eggplant-orzo-with-tomatoes-and-pesto?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=62ff8b706c1a0e2dd1a72c65&ss_email_id=62ff97486f70190d9a2fe9aa&ss_campaign_name=A+Silky%2C+Summery+Eggplant+Orzo+&ss_campaign_sent_date=2022-08-19T13%3A59%3A57Z