Unique Recipes: How to Cook Oriental Eggplant on the Grill
Want to make the dishes for barbecue more rich and diverse? Why not try baking Oriental eggplant? Learn how to operate it on the grill, and you are sure to have a different delicious experience.
How to grill oriental eggplant on the grill?
Cut the eggplant in half and make a grid pattern on the surface to make it more flavorful. First marinate it with salt for 15 minutes to remove the bitterness and dry the water.
The temperature of the grill should be controlled at medium-high temperature, about 200 degrees. Brush a layer of oil on the surface to prevent sticking. Put the eggplant on the grill and cover the lid and grill it for 5-6 minutes. Turn it over and grill it for another 4-5 minutes until the eggplant becomes soft and turns golden yellow on the surface.
For seasoning, make a sauce by mixing minced garlic, scallion, light soy sauce and sesame oil. Pour the sauce on the grilled eggplant while it's still hot to let the eggplant fully absorb the fragrance of the seasonings. If you like spicy flavor, you can add chili sauce or chili powder.
The key to grilled eggplant lies in the heat. If it's grilled for too long, it will be too soft and mushy. If the time is not enough, it will be hard and raw. It is recommended to observe more when grilling for the first time. Poke it with a chopstick. When it feels soft and waxy, it can be taken out of the pan.
What ingredients are suitable for pairing with oriental eggplant for cooking?
The most suitable combination for eggplant is these three ingredients: minced garlic, fermented black beans and minced meat. Minced garlic can add fragrance, fermented black beans can enhance the salty and delicious taste, and minced meat can make the taste more rich. These are the golden combinations summed up through years of cooking practice.
Secondly, green peppers, mushrooms and shrimps are also quite appropriate. The crisp taste of green peppers can neutralize the softness of eggplant. Mushrooms add delicious taste. Shrimps bring the sweetness of seafood. These ingredients combined together are not only balanced in nutrition, but also can make the layering of eggplant dishes more rich.
In terms of seasoning, in addition to common salt and light soy sauce, it is also recommended to add some bean paste or chili peppers. Spiciness can stimulate the fragrance of eggplant and make the taste of the whole dish more prominent. When cooking, it is best to stir-fry with medium heat slowly, so that the tastes of various ingredients can be fully integrated.
What happens if you don't salt eggplant before cooking?
Not salting the eggplant really affects the taste. It mainly makes the taste of the eggplant bland and lacks layering.
The main role of salting is to remove the water and bitterness from the eggplant and make the taste more compact. However, grilled eggplant doesn't need to be marinated in advance like stir-fried eggplant because the baking process itself will make the eggplant lose water.
The simplest solution is to season it after grilling. After the eggplant is cooked and peeled, add an appropriate amount of salt, minced garlic and sesame oil for seasoning. In this way, the eggplant can also become delicious. The key is to season it when the eggplant is still hot, so that it is easier to absorb the flavor.
How do you keep grilled eggplant from getting soggy?
The main reason for the softening of grilled eggplant is excessive water. Controlling the temperature and time is the key.
When choosing eggplant, you should pick the ones with dark purple and shiny appearance and moderate size. This kind of eggplant has relatively less water and is not easy to become soft when grilled. Before grilling, you can pierce a few small holes on the surface of the eggplant with a fork to make the water evaporate easily.
When grilling, the temperature should be controlled at about 200 degrees, and the time is about 15-20 minutes. If the temperature is too low, the eggplant will slowly exude water and become soft; if the temperature is too high, the skin will be easily scorched and the inside will still be raw.
Why is my grilled eggplant bitter?
The main reason why the eggplant is bitter is that the selected eggplant is not fresh or the temperature is too high during grilling, resulting in scorching. A fresh eggplant should be dark purple and shiny, with a firm and elastic touch.
The heat of grilled eggplant should be mastered well. It is recommended to grill slowly with medium-low heat. If the fire is too big, it is easy to burn the eggplant and cause bitterness. When grilling, the eggplant should be turned over frequently to avoid baking one side for too long until the skin of the eggplant turns slightly yellowish brown and you can smell the fragrance.
How do you peel eggplant after grilling?
Cut a long opening along the longitudinal direction of the grilled eggplant with a knife, and then insert a chopstick from the opening. Move the chopstick along the edge to separate the skin from the flesh. This makes it convenient to peel out the flesh completely. Because cutting open makes it easy to operate and the chopstick can borrow force for separation, if the movement is gentle, the eggplant flesh can be kept intact.
You can also wait for it to cool a little, and then scrape the flesh from the inside with a spoon to remove the skin. Because the spoon fits the inside of the skin, it can better separate the skin from the flesh when scraping.
