Pickled Purple Eggplant

Eggplant is not one of my favorite vegetables. It's bitter, has a weird shape, it's dark and it takes me back to my childhood television trauma of Mr. Roger's Purple People Eaters . One day Frankie came home with a giant bag and said that he was going to make pickled eggplant.

close up of the picked eggplant- see peppers!

We had 6 medium sized eggplants in a bag. After rinsing them off Frankie peeled each and every one of them. Eggplants are bitter and to make them taste awesome they need to be treated with care.

1- Peel Eggplants

peeling. Yes, I know he's half naked. I made him put his shorts on.
 

 all peeled!

step 2: Cut eggplants into strips

So after all that nasty purple people eater's peels are removed the next step is to slice them into layers and then each layer gets sliced into strings of eggplant. After completing this tedious task you should have a bunch of eggplant strips. Don't worry if they get a little brown on the outside, its just because they are being handled and are in contact with air.

step 3: Put strips in tray and salt them. Let them sit in the refrigerator overnight

Take all the strips and place them on a tray (or trays) and SALT THEM. Ideally there should be only one layer of eggplant strips on each tray but if you have too many you can just put layer over layer of strips as long as you salt each layer. Don;y worry about over salting because this is just a necessary step to get rid of most of the bitter eggplant nastyness.

I keep all the food trays that I get from the store so I used these to put the strips on. What the salt will do is extract all the liquids from the eggplant and this will collect at the bottom of the tray. It is a good idea to put he tray on and angle like so.

If you take a close look at the picture right above you can see that the water has already stared to gather at the bottom of the trays.  This went in the refrigerator overnight to make sure that all the bitterness was gone.

step 4. Strain strips of any liquids.

The next day take the trays out of the refrigerator ans simply strain the water out of them, pretty much the same way you would a pot of spaguetti.

 strain #1. Get rid of the bitterness

step 5. Put strips in boiling water for 5 - 8 minutes

Now the strips will be salty and not as bitter as the day before but they won't be tender. What you need to do is put a pot of water on the stove and heat it to boiling point.  Give the strips one last squeeze to make sure all the bitterness is gone and them put them in the pot.

Don't forget they're in there! If you overcook them they'll just turn into mush and you don't want that. 5 - 8 minutes should be enough depending on the thickness of the strips.

 cooking strips to make tender

step 6- Strain. Again. (last time this time promise)

strain #2. steamy..

At this point the strips should be tender enough that they don't need to be chewed but strong enough to be picked up with a fork. If it's been turned into mush save them to make babakanush.

step 7: Add Seasonings

Now it's time for the seasonings.

 spicy!

I like them spicy and a little bit of chopped spicy peppers give them that extra kick as make them a little more colorful

In addition to these wonderful peppers add the following:

• ground pepper
• vinegar (enough to soak them in)
• garlic powder or fresh garlic (if the latter make sure they are chopped finely)
• parsley 
• olive oil

basic seasonings

I don't have an exact measurement as to how much I want of each one of these seasoning. Just as more of the ones you like and if it tasted to your liking and looks pretty then it's done :)