photo from Wikipedia
Remember the post about yellow peppers? I had dehydrated 8 for Charlie. The 1 eggplant (aubergine) was omitted in the post. He asked me to dehydrate it and see what happened. Today, I gave him the glass jar of yellow peppers and a plastic bag with the dehydrated eggplant, about 10 slices. My suggestion to Charlie: try two slices of the dehydrated eggplant with a bit of olive oil and garlic salt to eat in the place of a chip. He called and said that worked. He liked it. Just next time it needed to be peeled as the skin was bitter. Charlie liked the yellow peppers to eat as a crunchy snack besides using them in cooking.
My next suggestion to Charlie: cook the eggplant and see if taste and texture are acceptable/pleasing after rehydration. I had no idea that eggplant needed to be peeled. My mother never cooked one that I know of. Since I cannot stand eggplant, I had never had one in my kitchen until his came here.
UPDATE: Charlie likes the eggplant chips so well that he does not want to cook them.
The eggplant was dehydrated until crispy (24 hours for 1/4" or less slice). Now, you know. It makes a nice chip when a smear of olive oil and a dash of garlic are added before eating. (I told him not to put on too much olive oil, maybe just a smear with his finger.) He said the olive oil was sucked right into the dry eggplant. Maybe you should not try to store them with the oil. Maybe the garlic can be added before dehydrating. This is limited information on outcomes, so you can run with this and make it your own.
Charlie does not know it yet, but when he gives me produce to dehydrate, half the results are mine! LOL...or, he can get out his dehydrator and do it himself...he will readily agree to my deal.
It's fun to dehydrate vegetables that can be eaten for snacking.
Did you know that "eggplant" and "aubergine" are colors?
Your turn
Have you ever dehydrated eggplant for snacking or cooking later? Does it REhydrate to your satisfaction?
While I've never dehydrated one I always eat the skins of my eggplant. I admire your attitude towards dehydrating. You've dehydrated things I'd have never even thought of dehydrating.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall dehydrating them. I might have. When I first got my machine I dried everything on the face of the earth for the novelty.
ReplyDeleteYou might try sprinkling the eggplant with salt and letting it sweat for half an hour or so first next time. This gets rid of bitterness prior to cooking-usually even the skin isn't as bitter then. It might dry faster too.
BLD,
ReplyDeleteIf it is fruit or vegetable that I have, I like to see what happens and how it tastes or rehydrates. It is always good to see what will turn out as healthful snack food. Thanks.
LindaM,
Charlie will have to do the prep work if it is anything except slicing. I thought about the salt, thinking I had seen it in some recipe. I did not know that the salt got rid of bitterness. Thanks.