The usual drill: internet searches, look up recipes in books, come up with a plan based on a all the--- sometimes incompatible--- information gleaned.
All the recipes start by peeling and slicing the eggplants, most proceed by cutting the slices into strips. Most, but not all, salt the eggplant and press it with a heavy weight to extract the water and, arguably, the "bitterness" from the vegetable --- or should I say fruit? This procedure ranges from a few hours, to overnight, to a full 24 hours, depending on who you ask. There is always a vinegar solution involved, and some seasoning --- garlic, oregano, chile peppers --- but some recipes request that you boil the eggplant in the solution for different amounts of time, and others that you simply soak it in the solution.
Another difference is the concern for botulism: the acidic environment, the boiling and the salt should take care of that, but some people suggest that one should also boil the seasonings --- the garlic, peppers and any herbs --- in the vinegar solution, and some add these components raw to the eggplant.
Then, the type of oil used: vegetable oil, mostly corn oil, or extra virgin olive oil?--- which is also a vegetable oil but with rather different characteristics. One could expect extra virgin olive oil to be the norm, but some argue that it is too imposing, especially if one wants to keep the preserve for a long time. Also, if one does not consume the jar in one sitting, it has to go to the fridge and the olive oil will coagulate and the corn oil won't.
Finally: once the jars are filled, is it necessary to process them in a hot water bath, and for how long? One might think this is related with the botulism concern mentioned above, but the spores that cause botulism won't kill those, one really needs to pressure can the jars.
Some people worry about the discolouration of the eggplant so they submerge it immediately after cutting in a vinegar solution. I did not explore that option, perhaps next time.
With all these possibilities, there is a large number of different preserving procedures! Does it make a difference? Probably not that much, so let's use common sense here!
A note about the eggplants: of course, the less seeds, the better. It's hard to figure that out before cutting into them, but there is folk wisdom about that: choose fruits that at the round end have a dot rather than a slit; prefer eggplants that are slightly soft over the ones that are very hard. These are not foolproof rules, and it's hard to assess if they work at all.
My recipe:
- 3kg of eggplant
- coarse sea salt
- 750 ml of vinegar
- 1500 ml of water
- about 10 cloves of garlic
- 2 or 3 chile peppers, fresh or dry
- 750 ml bottle of corn oil, but you will not use it all
Start by peeling the eggplants with a peeler, slice them lengthwise about 2cm thick, then stack them and cut 1.5 cm with strips. If the eggplants are large, you may want to cut the long trips into more manageable sizes. As you cut the strips, layer them on a large bowl and apply salt. Not too much, enough to help draw water out of the eggplant. Apply pressure. Let the eggplant sit for a couple of hours and them place them on a colander with large wholes, put a plate on top of it and on top of the plate put a heavy weight, like a 5 litre bottle of water. The purpose is to draw as much liquid as possible out of the eggplant, as moisture is one of the enemies of preserving food. Leave it overnight or even 24 hours to drain, removing any accumulating liquid if it's touching the strips.
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| The eggplant the day after |
The next day, peel the garlic and cut it into slices, do the same with the peppers (not the pealing, only the slicing!) and collect these slices inside a broth bag. Put the water and the vinegar and the water in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Working in batches, place the eggplant in the pot, bring again to the boil and remove to a colander to drain. Do the same with the bag containing garlic and peppers. I pressed it again overnight, using the same process.
Have the jars boiled for about 20 minutes and dry ready to pack. Don't use large jars, mostly 200 ml jars. In a large bowl, mix together the eggplant strips, garlic and peppers. Add a bit of oil just to aid in the mixing process. Fill the jars with this mixture and press to remove air pockets. Add oil as you fill the jars. Use a spoon or a chopstick to help the oil permeate to the bottom of the jar, leaving no air pockets. Wait a few hours, perhaps even overnight before advancing to the next step. In the meanwhile, do not close the jars.
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| The mixture ready to be packed into the jars |
I did not process in the hot water bath one of the jars and, despite the fact that I kept it in the fridge, it was clear that it was fermenting because, when I opened it, there was a pop sound and the actual eggplant was sort of fizzy. When I opened one of the other jars, that did not happen.
All in all, I am quite happy with the end result. The eggplant is firm, not mushy at all. I would perhaps add more garlic and hot peppers, or a herb like oregano, but as it is the eggplant really shines through. The salt level is not high at all, and this is one thing that we need to keep in mind when salting the eggplant at the beginning. When consuming, one can always correct the salt and add more herbs.
When opening a jar, keep it in the fridge and top it with more oil to keep the eggplant submerged.
