How to properly peel eggplant before cooking
Eggplant is a delicious but specific vegetable. It makes unusual and aromatic dishes if it is cooked correctly. So, most housewives recommend peeling eggplants before cooking in order to add spice to the dish and remove bitterness.
Peeling eggplants before cooking
How to choose the right eggplant
In order not to spoil the taste of the prepared dish, a suitable vegetable is chosen in advance. Before cooking, it is determined what heat treatment the fruits will undergo:
- cooking;
- frying;
- canning.
If you need a vegetable with a peel for cooking, choose only young fruits. They do not contain solanine, which is poisonous at high concentrations, and do not taste bitter after cooking. Eggplant should not be eaten raw: it is harmful to health.
When choosing a fruit, pay attention to the structure of the upper shell, the softness of the vegetable and the color. It is better to use eggplants for eating:
- with a sturdy structure;
- with firm and smooth skin;
- without spots;
- dark purple hue;
- without defects.
Soft and shriveled fruits indicate a lot of solanine, so they should not be chosen. Large ones also do not use: this is a sign of overripeness, which gives a bitter aftertaste. Adult specimens have tough skins and hard seeds that spoil food.
Do I need to peel eggplants
In the top layer of a vegetable crop, there are dietary fibers that are necessary for the human body to function properly. Nutritionists say that the peel:
- useful;
- nutritious;
- low in calories;
- improves metabolism.
Peeling eggplants is a pre-cooking process. It helps rid food of the bitter taste. If the final preparation requires the preservation of the shape of the vegetable, there is no need to clean the culture: the peel protects it from deformation.
The processing of vegetables depends on the cooking method
To get whole pieces after heat treatment, you should not peel the eggplant from the skin. Choosing a young crop, it is cut into pieces or slices and fried. Overripe specimen for 15 min. dipped in saline.
Vegetables are peeled, taking into account the choice of the dish. If stewing or cooking caviar is planned, the eggplants are processed and removed from the top layer. Peel small pieces to be used for stews or breaded.
The top layer of the fruit has a tart spicy aftertaste, so well-known chefs recommend peeling the eggplants or sprinkling them with salt and leaving for 30 minutes. If dark seeds are found during cutting, they should be cut with a small amount of pulp.
If eggplant cultivation was carried out independently, without the use of harmful substances, cleaning is not needed. It is better to peel store-bought eggplants, because they may contain nitrates and pesticides.
Eggplant peeling rules
Before cleaning, vegetables are washed under running water.
The top layer contains microbes that get into the dish during cooking.To cleanse the skin from the fetus, several rules are followed:
- Cut off the base of the stem with a knife. Use only a sharp, well-sharpened tool so as not to damage the shape of the vegetable in advance.
- The vegetable is held firmly in the hand, placing it in a container or on a board. Carefully peel off the top layer in strips using a knife or peeler.
- Peel the fruit until it is completely rid of the top layer.
During cleaning, do not direct the peeler towards you, so as not to get hurt. The vegetable is tilted away from you. It is cleaned at an angle, from top to bottom. Such cleaning of the fruit allows you to use it in the preparation of salads, stews, for canning, stewing or frying.
Incomplete cleaning
You can also cleanse the culture without completely leaving it without skin. Some cooks suggest peeling the fruit partially - in strips. This will allow the vegetables to keep their shape during cooking. This cleaning method will also give the dish a beautiful and unusual appearance.
The vegetables are washed, the remaining stem is cut off, not peeled completely, but in strips about 3 cm wide.This is how uniform stripes are obtained with intervals of the peel and pulp. After processing, the fruits are cut into pieces, strips, discs, cubes or halves.
Cleaning after cooking
The fruits are peeled after heat treatment. First, they are baked in the oven along with the purple surface, and then separated from the skin. Or scalded in boiling water and remove the upper section.
To remove the peel after cooking, the vegetable must cool. Cleaning is carried out with a knife, carefully removing the top layer without damaging the flesh.
If the eggplant is soft after boiling, peel it with your fingers, fork or spoon. The fruits processed in this way are used for stuffing, in salad, stews. This cleaning method speeds up the cooking process.
Conclusion
Eggplant is used as an additive to other dishes, or separately. If processed improperly, it tastes bitter, so it is important to choose the right fruit for cooking and the method of preparation. Young specimens do not need to be cleaned, and for overripe ones, the eggplant must be cleaned from the top layer.