What’s a Brinjal?
Investigation into the humble purple vegetable a.k.a. eggplant, aubergine, brinjal and what we can do with it.
Food
What’s a Brinjal?
Investigation into the humble purple vegetable a.k.a. eggplant, aubergine, brinjal and what we can do with it.
Covid-19 hits the world and thousands of budding gardeners start seeding their vegetable gardens with whatever plants and seeds they can get their hands on. Eggplant is a vegetable that is relatively easy to grow and provides abundant fruit. A couple of months into Summer and now faced with a wealth of these — many people face the question of, Now what?
What’s with the name?
I found it interesting that Irish and British use the same term as the modern French Aubergine when referring to eggplants, as termed by Americans and Canadians. This European use of a more sophisticated and cultured term also gave rise to aubergine as a color, usually ‘purple’ to the less sophisticated English speaking world.
Brinjal, used by African and South Asian cultures, has a deeper origin in Arabic/Dravidian languages as a word that was adopted and spread by the Portuguese during their brief time at world domination. Aubergine actually evolved from the term Brinjal. As with most American style names, what you see is what you get. So the plant whose fruit looks like chicken eggs before transitioning to various shades and textures of purple became eggplant. Other names for the fruit refer to the dark color of the fruit such as Melanjan, old French or Melanzana, Italian, were introduced through trade.
How to cook it?
Every culture agrees on one thing — you need to cook it. The raw fruit is usually bitter and astringent but on cooking turns soft and and picks up whatever flavor of oils and sauces in which it is served. Often to add some solidity to the texture, at least in South Asian curries and Asian stir fry, it is sliced and fried giving the texture of soft fries/chips. The thin skin serves as the foundation to hold the rest together and so Asian varieties tend to be long and less melon-like, giving rise to the popularity of the eggplant emoji. Larger varieties are used roasted and pureed in dishes like baba ghanoush. As we move West it can be pickled, stewed, or roasted. Its often used as a meat substitute or a vegetable to add bulk to a dish.
Some recipes
Ratatouille
My all time favorite go to for eggplant is Ratatouille. When done right it is summer by the spoonful. My favorite recipe is Deb Perleman’s of Smitten Kitchen — though I cut the vegetable into cubes and follow the general idea given here. My version looks less pretty but more hearty.
Brinjal Curry
Brinjal Bartha
Brinjal and Chillie Pickle
Italian style pickled eggplant
The Spruce Eats is a good source for recipes. This one for Melanzane Sott’aceto caught my eye.
This article is thanks in large part to my friend and hobby farmer Sharilyn who on growing a crop of eggplant needed some inspiration outside of her go tos of Moussaka and Baba Ganoush. Please feel free to leave more suggestions in the comments.
