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Tuesday, October 5, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
EGGPLANT: EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES
EGGPLANT
PARMESAN
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Purple and bulbous with a
neat green cap, eggplant is a
funny-looking thing. And some-
times when you eat it, it makes
your mouth itch.
No wonder people avoided
eating it for centuries. It is
a member of the nightshade
family, and people reasoned that
it must be poisonous.
But somewhere, at some time,
someone took this bizarrely
shaped fruit with the evocative
emoji and fried it in a little oil
with garlic and probably added
a tomato sauce — and a whole
new culinary world opened up to
glorious exploration.
It also happens to be still in
season, though the window for
straight-from-your-garden egg-
plant is quickly shutting. Fortu-
nately, through the magic of sci-
ence and modern transportation,
eggplant is available throughout
the year.
And that is good, because I
eat it throughout the year.
This particular week, I ate it
five different ways.
I began with a classic, Egg-
plant Parmesan, though some of
the other selections are going to
get a little weird.
Eggplant Parmesan is beloved
because it is the perfect use for
eggplant and also for Parmesan
cheese — not to mention tomato
sauce and garlic. It is also an
exceptional reason to use mozza-
rella cheese, but to be perfectly
frank the ultimate application of
mozzarella cheese is on pizza.
Typically when making egg-
plant Parmesan, thin slices of
eggplant are breaded and fried
before being stacked between
layers of cheese and tomato
sauce. But this version, which
I gleaned from “The Silver
Spoon” cookbook (it’s kind of
the ubiquitous Italian version
of “Joy of Cooking”) does not
bread the eggplant.
It still pan-fries them, but it
does not bread them. This way,
the eggplant is a little creamier
in texture. On the other hand,
it may also have more calories,
because nothing soaks up oil like
unbreaded eggplant.
Either way, it is a rich and
hearty meal that deserves a place
in anyone’s cooking repertoire.
My next eggplant dish was a
sandwich that would be entirely
at home in a fancy sandwich
shop or a restaurant focusing on
fresh, healthful flavors.
You can tell, because it has
a long name: Roasted Eggplant
Sandwich With Arugula Walnut
Yield: 4 servings
1 1/2 eggplants, cut lengthwise
into 1/4-inch slices
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 bunch basil
Pinch of granulated sugar
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
31/2 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced thin
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Eggplant Terrine.
Pesto Mayonnaise.
You roast eggplant and put
it in a sandwich with a spread
made from arugula-walnut pesto
and mayonnaise. But it’s even
better than that, because it also
has roasted red peppers and
more arugula in it. It’s best when
the bread — sourdough or cia-
batta, if you have it — is toasted
first.
To be honest, the eggplant
isn’t the star of this sandwich.
The sandwich stands out because
of that pesto mayonnaise. It’s a
brightly flavored spread, an exu-
berant combination of arugula
and basil with a light citrus kick
that could enliven any number
of sandwiches, especially vege-
tarian ones.
But try it with eggplant. It’s a
natural combination.
Because there is a long, thin
variety of eggplant that is native
to Japan, I decided to look for a
recipe from that country’s cui-
sine. The one that intrigued me
the most is Pickled Eggplant
With Oil and Vinegar.
This is a quick and quite
simple side dish made from juli-
enned eggplant pickled for a few
hours in a combination of sugar,
vinegar, soy sauce and vegetable
oil. It’s mildly salty and mildly
tart, reminiscent of any number
of popular pickles.
It’s how you present it that
really gets your notice. Com-
bining cold pickled eggplant
with hot rice takes the dish
to a higher plane of dining
excellence.
My next dish was an Eggplant
Terrine, and terrines are always
fun to make. They are even more
enchanting to serve to guests,
who will be suitably impressed.
A terrine is a loaf of meats or
vegetables pressed together and
served in slices. Meatloaf, for
instance, is technically a terrine,
though terrines usually come
more aspirational than that.
This eggplant terrine is made
from layers of thinly sliced,
broiled eggplant and Emmen-
taler cheese, held together with
a combination of eggs, colorful
chopped bell peppers and more
cheese. It is served with a simple
tomato sauce that you can whip
up in the time it takes to bake
the terrine.
It’s a great meal to serve
when you want to make someone
feel special.
Finally, I tried a Chinese dish,
Eggplant With Peanut Butter,
that comes from the province of
Shandong.
Peanut butter is not unknown
in China — think of the famous
cold noodles in peanut sauce
— and the rest of the ingredi-
ents are absolutely essential for
a basic stir fry: ginger, garlic
and toasted sesame oil. The
only question is how well the
eggplant pairs with the peanut
butter.
I could see where it would
be popular in Shandong, but the
combination is not immediately
pleasing to the Western palate
— though neither is it entirely
displeasing.
Let’s just call it interesting,
and leave it at that.
1. Place the eggplant slices in a colan-
der, sprinkle with salt and let drain about
1 hour. Meanwhile, put the tomatoes and
4 to 5 basil leaves in a pan, season with
salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar to
taste, and cook over high heat, stirring
frequently, for 15 to 20 minutes. This will
yield 1 cup of tomato sauce.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry.
Heat 1/3 of the oil in a skillet, add 1/3 of
the eggplant slices and fry until golden
on both sides. Remove with a slotted
spatula and drain on paper towels. Repeat
twice again with the remaining oil and
eggplant slices.
4. Spoon 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce
into an 8-by-8-inch ovenproof dish and
arrange a layer of slightly overlapping
eggplant slices on top. Sprinkle with a
little of the Parmesan, cover with a few
slices of the mozzarella; sprinkle a few
basil leaves and 2 tablespoons of the
beaten eggs on top. Season lightly with
salt and pepper.
5. Continue making layers until all the
ingredients are used, ending with a layer
of sliced eggplant, sprinkled Parmesan
and tomato sauce. Dot with the butter
and bake 30 minutes. This dish is also
good served cold.
Per serving: 614 calories; 55 g fat; 15
g saturated fat; 138 mg cholesterol; 17 g
protein; 19 g carbohydrate; 12 g sugar; 8 g
fiber; 1,018 mg sodium; 340 mg calcium
Recipe from “The Silver Spoon”
EGGPLANT WITH
PEANUT BUTTER
Yield: 3 to 4 servings
1 (1-pound) eggplant
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 slice ginger root, minced
1 tablespoon peanut butter
or sesame-seed paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Peel eggplant, cut in 1-inch chunks and
set aside. Heat oil in a wok or skillet and
stir-fry garlic and ginger 20 seconds. Add
eggplant and stir-fry another 20 seconds.
Blend in peanut butter, salt and water.
See, Eggplant/Page B3
The psychology of pumpkin spice
Researchers explain
the appeal of fall’s
favorite flavor
By CHRISTINA TKACIK
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — Here’s
an experiment to try.
Order a pumpkin spice-fla-
vored drink from your
local coffee shop. Without
telling them what it is,
ask a friend to try it while
holding their nose. Do
they know what it is? How
about when they can smell
it?
If your research subject
is anything like mine, they
won’t know what they’re
drinking until after you’ve
said the magic words:
pumpkin spice.
That’s understandable,
according to researchers
with Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, who explain the
appeal behind the flavoring
that dominates fall.
It’s not the taste of
pumpkin spice we love so
much as the smell and its
associations, says Sarah
Cormiea, a Johns Hop-
kins doctoral candidate
studying human olfac-
tory perception, and Jason
Fischer, a professor of
psychological and brain
sciences.
Of all the senses, smell
is uniquely tied to memory.
“There’s a kind of spe-
cial access to the memory
system in the brain that
odor perception has,” says
Fischer. The part of the
brain that processes odors
sits “right up against mem-
ories in the brain,” he said.
In fact, just reading the
phrase “pumpkin spice”
can summon scents and
memories of fall. The
phrase can be particularly
enticing when reinforced
by things like leaves
changing colors and kids
going back to school.
There’s a whole world
of pumpkin spice-flavored
items in stores, from Chee-
rios to hummus. Hunt Val-
ley’s own McCormick &
Company first released
their pumpkin pie spice
blend in 1934. Two years
ago, it was the company’s
fourth best-selling retail
spice during the fall.
But coffee giant Star-
bucks claims credit for the
phenomenon, which they
trace back to their 2003
launch of the pumpkin
spice latte. The drink is
topped with pumpkin
spice, a blend of cinnamon,
nutmeg, clove and ginger.
“For nearly two
decades, the return of
pumpkin at Starbucks has
signaled the start of the
fall season and inspired
a cultural phenomenon
around fall flavors and
products,” reads a news
release on their website.
This year, Starbucks stores
began selling pumpkin
spice lattes and other
autumnal beverages and
snacks on Aug. 24.
“There’s a reason they
don’t have [the pumpkin
spice latte] available all
year round, right?” says
Cormiea. “It’s because
people get excited and buy
it.”
Despite the linkage
between scents and mem-
ories, Cormiea says people
typically have a hard time
naming smells — as if
trying to name an acquain-
tance whose face they rec-
ognize at a party. That
Christina Tkacik/Baltimore Sun-TNS
A reporter’s pumpkin spice latte, purchased at a Starbucks in Baltimore. Researchers say the appeal of
pumpkin spice-flavored items is less about the taste than the smell and its associations.
changes once they hear
what something is.
In tests with research
subjects, she finds that
introducing labels to
smells “changes how
people experience it.
Something like snaps
into place once you get
the label.”
See, Pumpkin/Page B3