The Veggie
Eggplant croquettes, Bolognese, adobo and pretty much everything you could want for aubergine season.
At a birthday dinner last week, a pool of satiny, smoky eggplant pried my attention from an otherwise lively conversation. The dish was unassuming, dolloped with a bit of yogurt and a smattering of scallions and herbs. But my eyes ballooned cartoonishly with each bite, this slump of olive oil-drenched, simply seasoned pulp a redheaded bombshell to my Tex Avery wolf.
It was none other than Gabrielle Hamilton’s smoky eggplant. Her method, which she wrote about for The Times Magazine in 2020, is one for all of our back pockets with a variety of eggplants holding court at waning summer markets.
“You take the whole fat globe eggplant, and you set it directly on the burner grate on the stovetop,” Gabrielle writes. “Set the gas flame to high and scorch it. The skin forms a carbonized black bark — the kind that would usually signal ruin — while the flesh inside steams and softens until it collapses to silken and rather smoky perfection. While the eggplant cools after its scorching, a viscous liquid as dark as brewed coffee collects in the bowl, which steeps the interior fruit in its smokiness."
She strains the liquid, spoons the cooked eggplant out of its charred skin and finishes it with fruity olive oil, salt and lemon. I’d stop there and eat it over grilled bread (or, frankly, with a spoon), but you could go so far as to make it into filling for Gabrielle’s crispy eggplant croquettes, a hearty preparation for when the temperatures dip. Or turn the supermarket staple globe eggplant into planks for Eric Kim’s eggplant Parmesan, or Lidey Heuck’s eggplant lasagna.
Similarly cozy is Kay Chun’s eggplant Bolognese, best with Italian eggplant and earthy with mushroom stock and finely chopped mushrooms. You can make it vegan if you toss the pasta with two tablespoons of plant-based butter or olive oil and skip the Parm finish. Though her vegan eggplant adobo, tangy and showered with basil, is a touch better suited to how I want to eat right now. Just like the final weeks of summer, it’s bittersweet.
Borani Banjan (Afghan-style Eggplant in Yogurt)
View this recipe.
With more slender Japanese eggplant or adorably stout Indian eggplant, Zainab Shah’s five-star borani banjan (above) is in order. An Afghan-style dish, it is a stunning exercise in contrasts: cooling garlicky yogurt, savory eggplant, soft and sweet tomato and vibrant pomegranate seeds and mint.
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