Slice and Dice: Eggplant

By early October, I start to crave comfort foods from around the world. Eggplants come in an endless variety - from Biancas to Santanas to Pingtung Long - and offer a ticket across the globe. I bake them until succulent in parmesan, roast them until smoky for baba ghanoush, and saute them for the perfect meat substitute in Asian dishes. 

How to Select and Store Eggplant

Although eggplant is available year-round, its peak season is during the late summer and early fall. When selecting the right one, be sure to check that the skin is smooth and taut. If it’s ripe, gently (and affectionately) squeezing the flesh will leave a shallow, temporary indentation.

How to Peel, Slice, and Salt Eggplant

In the U.S., the voluptuous pear-shaped globe eggplant is the easiest to find. Its purple-black skin becomes chewy when cooked, so it’s often removed. Its springy, porous flesh sucks in oil, so to keep it from becoming greasy when cooked, eggplant is often salted, rinsed, and dried before cooking.

Place the eggplant on its side on a cutting board. Slice of the stem and the rounded end.

Using a vegetable peeler or pairing knife, remove the skin in long strips, moving lengthwise from the stem to bottom end. Or leave it on and skip to the next step.

Slice across the eggplant crosswise.





Place slices in a colander and sprinkle generously with salt -- enough to ensure each slice has been dusted. This keeps it from becoming spongy when cooked. Let the eggplant sit with the salt for about 15 minutes. (You will see water beads appear on the eggplant's surface.)

Rinse the salt from the eggplant and thoroughly dry it before cooking.

How to Cube Eggplant

Place the eggplant on its side on a cutting board, slice off the ends, and remove the skin with a vegetable peeler, as above.
Rest the bottom end of the eggplant on the cutting board. Cut down through the eggplant lengthwise, every half inch, to create planks.

Stack two planks on the cutting board and slice across them lengthwise, creating half-inch wide sticks.



Cut across the sticks, every half inch, to create half-inch cubes.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Cookies

My Dad was a generous host who treated Halloween like a well-orchestrated dinner party. The candy he handed out had to meet a certain standard much like the imported cheese and crackers that he carefully assembled for dinner guests. In southern Illinois, mini candy bars were considered top of the line and a few weeks before Halloween, he and my Mom would drive to a wholesale store to buy them in bulk.  

My Dad would pile bags of the bars into a shopping cart to ensure that every witch, ghost, and goblin that rang the doorbell left with a generous handout. My Mom would tell him to cut back by a bag or two knowing that he cushioned the count to accommodate his sweet tooth. But my Dad would insist that they also take part in the celebration.

On Halloween, my Dad would leave his medical practice early to ensure that the yard was presentable. He brought out the blower to clear leaves from the driveway and the front walk. Afterwards, he would put on a well-pressed shirt, pair of slacks, and a sweater vest to guard against the cold each time he popped open the screen door. Before my parents sat down for an early dinner, my Dad would transfer the bars into wide-mouthed wicker baskets, making it easy to dole them out. He also loaded his camera with film to document the parade of costumed guests.

PUMPKIN WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

3/4 cup chopped pecans

2 cups white chocolate, finely chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until well blended. 

Add the vanilla extract, cardamom, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves and beat until combined.

Add the pumpkin puree and egg. Beat until well combined.

Add half of the dry mixture and beat until the dry ingredients are just combined. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients.

Gently fold in the pecans and white chocolate.

Drop teaspoons full of cookie dough two inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake until edges brown, about 10 to 12 minutes.