While we’re on a break from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we’re cooking with some of my favorite ingredients this time of year, eggplant. One of favorite ways to use eggplant is in dishes like eggplant parmesan. One thing that I like to do with eggplant when I am going to bake with it is to salt it for a while. That helps it bake up with a really creamy texture. To start, I like to peel the eggplant. For me, I like using a Y Peeler. It’s a vegetable peeler in the shape of a Y. It peels most vegetables very easily. Next, I’ll slice into slices about half an inch lengthwise. I like using a rimmed baking sheet, using a series of layer. On each layer, I use some paper towels and toss kosher salt on the paper towels and more kosher salt on the top of the eggplant, then cover the eggplant with another layer of paper towels. I put on some weights on everything, like some cans for about an hour. During that hour, at lot of moisture will come out. I’ll brush off the excess salt and the eggplant is ready to be used.
On our San Francisco Food Tours, it’s always great to learn about the special things that our stops use for the ingredients. For example, making their own chicken broth turns out with as much more flavorful soup. And, we always have a great time learning all of their special techniques.
