Glossy purple eggplants are just one variety of a vegetable that comes in many sizes and colors.
Eggplants originated in the East and arrived in the United States with 19th century Chinese railroad workers. Long before that, eggplants were a staple part of Middle Eastern cuisine.
Though it shares many dishes with other Middle Eastern cuisines, Persian, or Iranian, cooking is distinctive, incorporating sweet and sour flavors, lime and pomegranate juices, fruit and nuts. In Iran, eggplants, called badenjan, are used in dishes unique to Persian kitchens.
Starters and Snacks
Eggplant combines with yogurt for a classic Persian dip.
Yogurt and eggplant combine well for a variety of Middle Eastern dips. Janet Brinkworth of UK television's Good Food Channel adds lime juice, garlic and mint to create boorani-ye-badenjan, a classic Persian version. Another dish that makes a good starter or light lunch is bademjan ghasemi from Northern Iran, near the Caspian Sea. Fry roasted eggplant, peeled tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. Add the vegetables to beaten, partially scrambled eggs. Finish by frying the mixture all together in the pan. The effect is of a savory vegetable mixture incorporating shreds of tender scrambled eggs. Small eggplants, if you can find them, are good cooked this way.
Main Dishes
Fried eggplant's meaty texture makes it a useful ingredient for vegetarian main dishes. Kashk bademjoon features fried eggplant braised with diluted tomato paste and then dressed with kashk, a thick whey available in Iranian shops. Kookoo badenjan, another dish suitable for vegetarians, combines sliced and fried onions and eggplants with beaten eggs in a thick, pancakelike omelet that is served cut in wedges.
The vegetable can also add extra texture to meat dishes. Abghust is a Persian stew of lamb, eggplant, chick peas and potatoes in which the meat and vegetables are pounded into a meaty paste and served with a soup of the cooking liquids and traditional flat bread.
Relishes and Pickles
Torshi is the Persian word for pickles and usually describes vegetable mixtures cooked and preserved in vinegar or lime juice and spices. Eggplant pickled on its own is known as torshi liteh and is often sold commercially, in glass jars. More of a condiment than a pickle in the western sense, the dish involves roasting and chopping the eggplant before boiling it with vinegar until it is virtually reduced to a paste. The mixture is then seasoned with a variety of herbs.
Similar herbs are used to prepare torshi makhloot, which incorporates chopped cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, beans, potatoes and celery into the chopped and reduced eggplant. Both pickles are usually served with rich meat dishes and stews such as abghust.
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