Eggplant, which came to us from India, is considered by many to be a vegetable. In fact, he is a berry. Yes, and what - from the nightshade. But, unlike the small black fruits of a poisonous plant, eggplant is unusually healthy and tasty. Therefore, in our country he was affectionately nicknamed "little blue." However, the eggplant nevertheless took something from its dangerous relative. It is solanine, a substance that gives the raw berry a bitter taste. Therefore eggplant salads never made from "fresh", like vegetable crispy snacks. Most often, this pseudo-vegetable is roasted.
Fruit selection
Unlike caviar, sauté and other appetizers, eggplant salads prepared from slightly unripe berries. Blue ones should be firm, small, with a smooth, shiny skin. Even if they taste soft and do not bitter - do not believe: solanine will certainly appear if you do not perform one small simple procedure. Cut the fruit into “washers” (you can also pre-clean the blue ones from the skin, but in some recipes this is optional). Fold the rounds in a pan and sprinkle with salt. Leave them like that for an hour.
Further preparation of the base product
After this time, the released moisture is drained and the washers are washed under a stream of cold water. Thus, we eliminated the bitter substance, and you can proceed to the actual cooking. Eggplant Salads
most often have fried blue ones in their composition. They are thoroughly blotted with a kitchen towel so that they do not splatter in a pan, and spread in hot oil. They need to be fried until golden brown. If you neglect the procedure of salting, washing and drying, the eggplant will absorb all the oil and become too greasy and tasteless.
What foods are added to eggplant salads?
Since the blue ones are added to the dish in a fried form, then most of the other ingredients are also subjected to some kind of culinary processing: pickling, boiling, salting or smoking. Do not hold back your imagination, since everything is appropriate in salads with this berry. Try adding pickles or capers for piquancy. Pomegranate grains for refinement. Smoked chicken for satiety. Pickled olives, hard cheese, feta cheese, Korean carrots, fried mushrooms - all this also goes well with little blue ones, and can also be added to salads with eggplant. Recipes
almost all peoples of the world have such snacks, where this false vegetable is only known.
The most famous blue appetizer
Of the variety of recipes, the most striking and beloved among the people is, perhaps, Korean eggplant salad . We recipe his recipe. Two small unripe berries are washed and cut into thin semicircles. We do all the preparatory work for frying blue ones. Two carrots and two onions are also chopped in half rings. Two bell peppers cleanse from seeds, cut into strips. Add the cooled blue fried to the vegetable mass. The secret of this dish is in its dressing. Mix five tablespoons of vegetable oil, a spoonful of apple 6% vinegar and a spoonful of soy sauce. Shake thoroughly in a separate bowl, then water the dish. Such a salad should be prepared several hours before serving. This is necessary so that all components are thoroughly soaked in sauce and softened. A bowl of salad should stand under the lid in the refrigerator for about 8-9 hours.