The following instructions are especially for my friend, Petro, who gave me this delicious eggplant, which was growing in her garden.
There are many recipes around - My favourite is this Lamb moussaka, from George of Masterchef Australia fame. I make a similar version, but substitute mince, making it a much quicker dish, but still delicious!
Most recipes requiring brinjal will instruct you to slice the brinjal, cover with salt and leave to drain. There is NO need for that! Roasting them whole over your gas flame, is quicker and brings out such a delicious smokey flavour, you will never cook them any other way again!
Place your brinjal over the open flame.
Turn every few minutes so it cooks evenly, remembering to also stand it on its end so that the bottom end also cooks soft.
This was quite a large brinjal I used, and it only took 10 minutes to roast!
This is what it looks like after about 10 minutes.
The skin starts to flake away in places, and the flesh is soft to the touch.
If you don't have a gas stove, you can do this in the oven, under the top element, but it takes much longer.
Dunk your roasted brinjal into a bowl of ice water and leave for a few minutes, until it's just cool enough for you to handle
Don't worry - it does look as tho it shrivels up, but that's what it's supposed to do.
As soon as you can handle it, peel away the skin.
Split your brinjal length-ways into quarters and leave to drain in a colander until needed.
With salt and a bit of olive oil added, it's delicious as it is!
Now you can add your prepared brinjal to any recipe, and it will be way better than when prepared the normal way. Even those who don't like brinjal, will enjoy this!
Try it, and let me know how it turns out.
