Pickled Eggplant (Aubergine)

 

This is one of those recipes which makes me wonder how can anything so simple taste so good. We were gifted a few Globe or American eggplants, and we also harvested a few Japanese eggplants from our garden. The numbers exceeded even my ability to make meals out of them, so of course that inspired me to do some pickling.  Let's pickle!

If you love eggplant, this recipe is for you. What I cook is often determined by what fresh fruit and vegetables I have at my disposal and also the season at the time. During the heat of the North Queensland Summer, I'm not baking as much as I would like, but as I hate waste and love to cook, using up excess vegetables with pickling gives my pantry stocks a real boost. Eggplant have been somewhat of a theme with my cooking recently, because they are now at their best during the Aussie Summer.

Thanks to the talented Jamie Oliver for the Italian recipe that my Pickled Eggplant are based on.

I'm turning on the air-conditioning and pickling. Baby, it's hot in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

Makes 3 large jars of pickles

4 1/4 cups water

4 1/4 cups white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons good quality or kosher cooking salt

1 kg or 2 1/4 lbs eggplants

 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano

 1 1/2 red chilli peppers

4 garlic cloves

1 cup Sunflower oil

1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method:

Prepare to sterilise your jars. 

Experienced picklers will already have their own method for sterilising jars. 

I like to place them in the dishwasher on a light glass cleaning cycle about an hour before required and they are ready to go when required if left to keep warm in the dishwasher. However you might prefer to place your pickling jars in a pot of boiling water and let them sterilise for 5 minutes. they will then need to be dried off in the oven on a cloth lined tray.

Prepare the brine:

Place a large pot on the stove, and pour in the 4 1/4 cups of water, 4 1/4 cups of white wine vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of salt. Turn the heat on your stove to high.

(Stir the contents to ensure the salt dissolves evenly as it heats.)

Slicing the Eggplants while the Brine is heating:

Remove the green tops from the eggplants. Slice each eggplant in half lengthwise. Then slice each of the halves into 1/2 inch thick half-moon slices. Cut each slice into 1.3 cm or 1/2 inch batons. I left mine fairly chunky.

Using a really sharp knife to help with all of this slicing.

Cooking the Eggplant in the Brine.

Bring the brine to a rolling boil, and carefully add the sliced eggplant batons to the pot. 

Boil the eggplant batons for 3 minutes in the brine. They might float to the surface, so either use a spoon to push them down, or use a lid that fits inside your pot, to keep the eggplant submerged in the brine. I always set my timer for 3 minutes, because cooking the eggplant for too long, means mushy eggplant.

Prepare the Oil Mixture

This next step can be done beforehand, or while the eggplants are boiling.

Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano, 1 1/2 sliced red chilli peppers, 4 coarsely chopped garlic cloves, 1 cup of sunflower oil, and another cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. 

Mix it all well together so that the herbs and spices are well distributed. 

Combine the Eggplant and the Oil mixture

When the eggplant pieces have finished boiling, carefully place them in a colander to drain. Allow them to cool slightly. 

Now add the eggplant to the prepared oil mixture, and toss everything gently to coat the eggplant. Because my eggplant was cut more into chunks than batons, there wasn't much risk of them breaking, but batons could break if handled a little less delicately.

A 2nd batch where I'm pickling a variety of eggplants

Bottling the eggplant and sealing.

Transfer the oil-coated eggplant pieces into the sterilised bottles and carefully seal them with the sterilised lids.

The eggplant needs to be fully submerged in the oil within the jars before sealing. There will be plenty of oil for this.

Store the jars somewhere cool and dark. It is best to leave the pickles for about 2 weeks before opening so the the vegetables can completely marinate. However, I opened a jar the following day and the eggplant was delicious. Be sure to refrigerate the jar after opening.

The pickles should keep for at least 3 months.

Cook's notes:

• I love that this recipe only requires dried oregano as a seasoning herb. I keep my oregano in a jar in the freezer where it keeps beautifully fresh.  Pickling seeds aren't necessary to enhance the flavour. However, if you wish to add some for appearances sake, do so by all means. I struggle with eating pickles and chutneys laden with seeds, as they aggravate my gut. So no seeds or nuts in my pickles please. My zucchini pickles are the exception to that rule because they have been well cooked.
• Leave out the garlic if you can't tolerate it.
• I keep a whole bag full of this year's home grown red chillies in the freezer for recipes just like this. I used 2 of them this time.
• I underestimated the amount of vinegar needed for this recipe when I made my first batch, so for the 2nd batch I used a cheaper white wine vinegar.
• For the first batch I used half white wine vinegar, and half apple cider vinegar, the result was delicious.

Happy pickling, 

Warm wishes

Pauline