Appreciations (12) – A model eggplant

Appreciations (12) – A model eggplant

Torrey Orton

September 14, 2009

I was overwhelmed by the completeness of this piece in honour of the promising but tasteless (in my view) aubergine…filler accompaniment to many flavours and for its capacity to soak them up and retain them in a form suitable for babies – a not quite decomposed mush. The article's take is a bit more generous than mine, though European focussed, as so often even for acknowledge Asian transplants. They failed to mention a famous traditional Chinese dish….

I commend it to your taste for short sharp revelations of wonder and delight.

"Synonymous with Mediterranean cuisine, Solanum melongena, eggplant or aubergine is an Asian export, making it to Europe about a hundred years before Columbus. An unsalted aubergine owes its bitter taste to a tiny quantity of nicotine, but remove this minor piece of nastiness and an aubergine will behave impeccably, maybe mixing best of all with garlic, tomatoes and olive oil but also making surprisingly good jam with a silken texture and fullness of flavour. Often referred to as a fruit and usually cooked as a vegetable, it is officially a berry. Some varieties are indeed small and cute enough to qualify, but others are positively Rubenesque. The sun-warmed pile of fragrant purple lusciousness down at the market has a whole host of equally good-looking family members – creamy white, palest green, pink and striped, firm and fat, long and thin like fingers, round or oval, and eventually there will surely be a square one. Preserve them in oil with garlic and chilli and then watch the purple colour of the skin slowly leach out into the creamy flesh. And then eat them. On toast, with rice or pasta, baked and stuffed, fried, roasted, pickled, pureed, sugared and spiced and turned into jam, layered with mozzarella and tomato, stewed as ratatouille or minced as pesto. They look glorious, they taste fabulous, and we should be grateful that melanzane display none of the characteristics of their antisocial relative, the deadly nightshade – except for that wonderfully decadent belladonna purple."

From The Guardian Sept 2, 2009; Comment is Free section