Soak the eggplant
There is a drawback that you must get rid of before eating eggplant - it's bitterness. To do this, you need to soak the eggplant. There are several ways to do this.
Soak the eggplant
Before cooking, vegetables are cooked: they are thoroughly washed, dried, tails and any damage to the skin are removed.
Dry soaking
To carry out the procedure, the prepared vegetables are cut and placed in a deep container, sprinkled with coarse crystalline salt. This is a prerequisite, since the structure of the pulp is porous - fine salt will be absorbed, and the dish will be oversalted. Salt is used sea, mineralized, ordinary, the main thing - the larger the better. After 20-30 minutes, when droplets of liquid appear on the surface, the eggplants are washed with running water.
There is another option, how to dry soak the eggplant. A grate is placed on the bottom of the container, and eggplants smeared with coarse salt on top. The dish is covered with a lid and for 30-35 minutes. put under oppression. After this time, the vegetable is thoroughly washed.
The method used depends on the freshness of the product. It is permissible to soak fresh without oppression, already lying down requires a lot of effort to extract bitterness. Fresh eggplants are shiny, smooth, with firm skin, firm, with green leaves near the stalk. If the vegetable is soft and the stalk is dry, it has been cut for a long time - oppression is required.
Before frying, the product is dried on a paper towel or linen towel. During the cooking process, the dish is slightly salted. To begin with, they will try a raw slice: it happens that during soaking, the vegetable is salted well, and additional seasoning only spoils the dish.
Soak in salt water
Salt water will relieve the vegetable from bitterness.
Salt water soak is the most popular option. The soaking time depends on which pieces the vegetable is cut into. If they are thin circles or slices, half an hour is enough. If it is important to soak the whole eggplant, it will take 2 hours. The main thing is to withstand the time so that all the bitterness comes out.
The soaking algorithm looks like this:
- Prepare a solution: take 1 tbsp for 1 liter of water. l. salt. You will also need oppression to "drown" vegetables in a saucepan.
- Put vegetables in a saucepan, fill with salt water and set at the right time.
- Rinse with water and allow excess liquid to drain. For a faster result, it is permissible to squeeze.
Soaking in ice water
It is better to soak eggplants in ice water overnight. The water is pre-cooled in a refrigerator. It is permissible not to cut vegetables, but to put them in a container as a whole and fill them with this water. Then put the pan in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours.
At the final stage, water is thoroughly squeezed out of the vegetable. Vegetables must be salted before cooking.
Soaking with milk
Soaking fresh eggplants in milk is another option that doesn't require salt. Vegetables for 30 min. immersed under oppression, after which liquid is squeezed out of them. It is good to use a paper towel to wring out.After that, the vegetables are dried and used for cooking.
For soaking in milk, do not cut the product too finely, medium pieces are ideal. They are cut in half or in 4 pieces.
Summarizing
All methods of soaking eggplants can be roughly divided into 2 groups: with and without salt. The most popular is to soak the product in salt water.