Eggplant berry - yes, contrary to popular belief, this is not a vegetable - came to us from India. However, she was so fond of our people, and she took root in our gardens so well that she received the affectionate name “blue” among the people. They are cooked in different ways: mostly fried or baked. But in the pan, the blue ones have an unpleasant ability to absorb fat. The result is a tasty, but very unhealthy (for carcinogens) and fatal dish figure. Here we will look at several ways to cook eggplant in the oven. It can be baked whole, thin "washers" or as a stew with other vegetables.
But no matter what you cook from this large oblong glossy berry, it is important to know several general principles for its culinary processing. This close relative of the poisonous nightshade also contains bitterness, and the task of any housewife is to remove it. Therefore, our first step on the path to how to cook eggplant in the oven will be cutting it into pieces and pickling. If you are going to bake the whole little blue ones, simply chop the fruit lengthwise into halves. Sprinkle the slices well with salt and leave for 20 minutes, or even half an hour.
Some housewives, who do not know how to cook eggplant in the oven, peel the fruits like zucchini. It is not right. The peel should be left (the only exception is sauté and vegetable stew), but if the blue ones are overripe, you need to remove the core with stones from them. But in principle, try to use young berries with a shiny glossy peel and a green tail. So that the fruits absorb as little fat as possible during frying, place them under the press during salting. Well, then rinse thoroughly under cold water - both salt and bitterness will be washed off.
Another trick for those who want to know how to cook delicious eggplant in the oven is the ability to make the berry stop absorbing oil. For example, if you firmly decided to fry the little blue ones before baking with vegetables or cheese, take a non-stick coating pan, and if there is none on the farm, roll the eggplant slices breaded with salted flour.
To start cooking a product should be with a simple recipe. So let's bake whole eggplants in the oven. Chop the garlic not very finely. We pierce the skin of the blue ones with the tip of the knife in several places and fill the holes with slices of garlic. We put eggplant on a wire rack or put it on a skewer. In the oven, the berry “ripens” until fully cooked in half an hour, and even less over the coals. If you bake blue ones just on a baking sheet, sprinkle them with grated cheese 5-10 minutes before turning off the oven. Wait for the rosy fragrant "hat".
Another simple recipe for cooking eggplant in the oven is to stuff them with something. Meat, tofu cheese, mashed potatoes with garlic and cilantro, mushrooms, garlic and walnuts scrolled through a meat grinder - everything will work for the filling. However, it should be remembered that the little blue ones cook faster than the same minced meat. Therefore, they need to be cooked separately, and combined at the final stage of preparation. Let’s try to prepare for this dish a sauce of sour cream, adjika (or a drop of mustard). Pour eggplant with this mixture and bake at 180 ° C for about 20 minutes.