Eggplant and Flowers in August
EGGPLANT
DISGUISING EYESORES
Horticulture Magazine has an email newsletter that has an article on eggplant this week. It's probably too late to decide to plant it but I can tell you that we started Renee's Asian Trio from seed and it is doing pretty well other than relentless insect damage. What a beautiful plant with the purplish stems, lavender flowers and tipped new leaves. There are a couple of small eggplants forming.
In the Horticulture Magazine article, author Tovah Martin suggests planting eggplant to be part of an upcoming trend in gardening: Purple.
Martin has color coordinated the vegetable garden with 'Royalty Purple Pod' bush beans, 'Rouge d'Hiver' romaine and Black Beauty eggplant.
Not quite satisfied with the colors on the grill, 'Applegreen', 'Red Ruffled', 'Listada de Gandia', and 'Casper' were added.
Renee's has eggplant seeds packed with 3-kinds of Italian or 3-kinds of Asian in the same envelope. The seeds are color coated with the legend on the package. This is an easier and less expensive way to get several kinds unless you were planning to plant a field of it.
This is the shed in our back yard that is on the verge of falling down. We just keep planting things in front of it and on the sides. Birds have raised many babies in those houses nailed on it, too.
This photo was taken yesterday, proving the point that when you have something in the yard that is not up to your otherwise high visual standards, you can always mask them with plants.
Comments
I confess I've been cooking them the (unhealthy) old-fashioned fried way, dipped in egg and milk and dredged in flour, but they remind me of my grandma's cooking when I do them that way, and they're delicious, too.
I've promised myself tomorrow I'll try the "oven-fried" method, in which instead of deep-frying them, I'll spread three tablespoons of oil on a cookie sheet, lay out a single layer of the eggplant slices, and bake them.
Also, instead of dredging them in plain flour (with salt and pepper), I may use Italian-seasoned bread crumbs, if I remember to pick some up at the supermarket.
This is the first year I've planted eggplant, but it won't be the last. They taste fantastic.
One other thing, the raw eggplants are beautiful arranged in a bowl, as a centerpiece or just sitting on the counter.
I don't bread and fry the eggplant though I should try your oven fry method when there is one big enough to pick.
In the past I've always made some version of ratatouille - stir fry the eggplant with other vegetables and serve it on top of rice. Epicurious has a similar recipe at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/12164.
But the one recipe I have been making for over 20-years is eggplant caviar - a garlic, eggplant spread that I can in little jars for gifts and snacks. The trick to that one is find a recipe that adds a tiny bit of sugar at the end of the cooking time. Fabulous.