Eggplant – The Virginia House-Wife | pg. 131-132 | Mary Randolph

Eggplant – The Virginia House-Wife | pg. 131-132 | Mary Randolph

The purple ones are best, get them young and fresh, pull out the stem, and parboil them to take off the bitter taste; cut them in slices an inch thick, but do not peel them, dip them in the yelk of an egg and cover them with grated bread, a little salt and pepper, when this has dried, cover the other side in the same way; fry them a nice brown. They are very delicious, tasting much like soft crabs. The egg plant may be dressed in another manner, scrape the rind and parboil them, cut a slit from one end to the other, take out the seeds, fill the space with a rich forcemeat, and stew them in well seasoned gravy, or bake them and serve up with gravy in the dish.

 

Notes:

Isn’t Randolph’s use of ‘yelk’ for ‘yolk’ charming? I smile every time I come across it in her book as I try to picture how she might have pronounced the word.

I must admit I did not parboil the eggplant and as you can see in the photo the rather mature fruit available to me last week had seeds. Not minding the taste of the seeds I cooked and ate them anyway. But it is true that the younger, smaller, and fresher you get eggplant the fewer seeds there will be.

1-Ready to coat with crumbs

I used homemade bread crumbs but Panko will do as well.

2-Coated and dry

Because bread crumbs can burn easily you want to fry the slices in hot oil till just browned, turn them, and brown the other side quickly and if you feel the slices are not cooked all the way through put them on a rack on a cookie sheet and finish them in the oven for 10-15 min @350 degrees. If you fry them on too low a heat they absorb too much oil.

3-Frying
3-Frying

I’m not sure I agree with MR’s description of the taste resembling that of soft shell crab but this lovely dish nonetheless delicious served as the centerpiece of a vegetarian meal with rice or couscous or quinoa, and salad. And of course eggplant prepared ala´ Mary Randolph would go very well with lamb.

4-Done and ready to eat
4-Done and ready to eat


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