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!

Eggplant Antipasto with Onions, Oregano, and Parsley

Italian eggplant antipasto is designed to captivate us at the first bite, and this dish fulfills it's promise. I love Italian food, and am always looking for different recipes with eggplant, which grow so well here in the Tropics. I used some fresh white homegrown eggplant which I was given from our friend's garden. I haven't seen these white ones in the supermarket but I did see some seedlings at Bunnings the other day which may interest you.  However eggplant self seed so easily from the compost to the garden if you can find some.

The white eggplant are perfect for this recipe as they aren't as bitter as the large purple ones can be, and they soak up all of the wonderful flavours of the herbs, the olive oil, the garlic  and the vinegar. The eggplant are prepared by boiling them, a different approach and so easy, which means they soften nicely and some of the seeds are also discarded in the water.

This recipe is taken from Marcellina's Marcellinaincucina blog, and when  I saw it  I had to make it. Thanks to Marcellina for this original Italian recipe.She has some wonderful Italian recipes on her blog.

Serve this with some crusty bread, and you have a match made in heaven. I used some of my latest sourdough loaf to serve it with.

Ingredients:
Serves 8

3 large eggplant cut into 2 cm chunks
2 onions sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic chopped finely
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
salt
Freshly ground pepper

Method:

Cook the chopped eggplant in a large pot of salted water for about 5 minutes. You may need to push the eggplant down with a spoon because the chunks will float as they cook.

When the eggplant is cooked, drain well, and transfer to a bowl and cover.

Warm the olive oil in a frying pan.

Add the onions. garlic, and oregano and fry gently until softened and aromatic. Cook long and slow for about 15 minutes.

Add the red wine vinegar. Stir to combine.

Pour mixture over the cooked eggplant along with the parsley and toss gently to combine.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Preparing Antipasto can be as simple as opening a bottle, however it is expensive to buy and preparing your own like this is quite simple and so delicious, so I urge you to give it a try.  This Eggplant Antipasto keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, which means there is always a quick snack available or an antipasto platter easily assembled. Allow to stand at least an hour before serving but best made the day before you plan to eat it.

Bye for now

Pauline xx

Sicilian Caponata, a Healthy Mediterranean Diet Option

Caponata alla Siciliana or Sweet and Sour Eggplant

Caponata is a sweet and sour Sicilian vegetable dish that ticks most of the Mediterranean cuisine boxes. We ate the Caponata as a vegetable dish to accompany chicken during the week, although it can be served on its own to accompany healthy breads or as a relish. The smaller the size of the vegetable pieces the more you can call it a relish. It will keep in the frig for a couple of days and improves in flavour as a result.

Sicilian Pickled Eggplant

Pickling is a great way to use up my excess homegrown eggplant, as the quantity processes right down to comparatively small and manageable quantities. This pickle can to be eaten with roasted Mediterranean vegetables, with cheese, salads, and will be the star of any antipasta platter.

The recipe was given to me by Kara during a visit from Brisbane, and was handed  to her by her Sicilian neighbour. Rod and Kara have progressed from being fairly uninterested in eating eggplant to raving about  the variety of dishes that their neighbour can create with his homegrown eggplant, including this pickle. Sicilian pickled eggplant on toast for breakfast? I am not sure about that, but apparently Rod is hooked.

I like to use smaller eggplant if possible as they seem much crisper, less bitter, and easier to work with, but of course you will need more.  The size probably doesn't really matter though with this pickle given the processes involved.

Adjust the amount of garlic and herbs according to your tastes, but remember that they will be actively flavouring your pickle beautifully whilst marinating in the refrigerator. If you can acquire some fresh garlic from the markets, and it has recently been harvested all over the country, that will be a bonus.
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Ingredients:

6 large or 12 small eggplants,
Salt
2 litres vinegar
Vegetable oil
4 large cloves of very fresh garlic
4 red chillies (or 2 if using the large red ones)
Oregano
Parsley
Rosemary

Preparing the eggplant for pickling:

Peel them, top and tail them,  and slice them lengthwise thinly. Salt the slices to remove the liquid and press over night. The ideal way to press them is to place the slices between boards covered with kitchen wrap and weigh them down with bricks. This time I layered them between cutting boards and weighed them down with heavy dishes and books in my kitchen, whatever you have to apply maximum weight. The eggplant needs to be very thin with all the brown juices removed. Some seeds might even pop out in the process.

Sterilise bottles:

Place 4 small pickling bottles in the oven at 120 deg. for 20 minutes to sterilise,  ready for bottling.
Remember to remove the lids and place bottles and lids in separately, not touching.

Pickling the eggplant slices:

• Remove the eggplant from the boards.
• Finely chop garlic, chillies, and herbs and set aside.
• Boil the vinegar in a large saucepan and reduce to a simmer.
• Place the eggplant in the vinegar to coat. 
• Remove eggplant slices and drain and squeeze tightly. ( I use thin plastic gloves for this process, and squeeze them between clean tea towels in a few batches.) The squeezing is very therapeutic, and the eggplant flesh is firm enough to maintain it's texture. Believe me, it needs a really good squeeze to remove the last traces of vinegar and juices. Lots of eggplant seeds will fall out, this is fine, and can be shaken out form the tea towels quite easily. There are still plenty of seeds left.
• Mix vegetable oil, eggplant, garlic, chilli, and chopped herbs,  in a medium sized bowl. Mix it up well with your hands. I used gloves because of the chillies.
• Place the pickled eggplant in your sterilised jars, squashing the mixture down as hard as you can  below the  rim of the jar, allowing enough room to cover the eggplant with vegetable oil.
• The idea is to minimise the amount of oil in the jar as the eggplant will absorb the flavour of the oil very easily, and I didn't want that to happen.  That is also why the milder vegetable oil is used instead of olive oil.
• Seal and keep jars in the refrigerator and eat within a couple of weeks.