How to Cook Eggplant

eggplant, originally uploaded by specialkrb.

Eggplant started appearing in our share this week, so I've been researching how to cook eggplant. I've cooked with it before, but never been that happy with the results, so I decided to do some research into what I might be doing wrong -- mine was always mushy.

I came across the two videos below on eggplant from Alton Brown. After watching them, I decided to make the Baba Ghannouj recipe.

The main Eggplant Cooking Tips I picked up from him are:

• Eggplants are berries
• The bigger an eggplant gets the more seeds it has; the more seeds it has, the more bitter it is.
• If you are buying a bigger eggplant, buy the male version (circle bottom) not the female version (oval bottom) because the males have less seeds.
• To store for 1-2 days, place in the coolest spot in your kitchen.  If longer, top shelf of your fridge wrapped in plastic wrap.
• You can freeze eggplant.
• To prevent mushy eggplant, you can break the cell walls, but putting some salt on each side and letting them sit.

Part One:

Part Two:

I am pretty sure that these are the two peelers he suggests in the last video:

Oxo Good Grips Swivel Peeler and Oxo Good Grips i-Series Y Peeler

btw... we don't have cable, so I don't watch Alton Brown's show (ever) but I can find most of the shows on YouTube and watch them there. This month he is coming to the local university. I can't wait to go see him!