humour me - how do I prepare aubergine - and is it too late to do it for a meal tonight??

[alwayslookingforanswers]

I've got an aubergine bake thing on the menu plan this week and was thinking of doing it today.

I need them sliced.......recipe is very vague as to how I "prepare" them though and I'm somewhat clueless

What do I do? And is it too late for a meal tonight?

I slice them, sprinkle slices with salt then cover with kitchen towel and something heavy so the salt gets all the excess water out. I usually only do it a short time before I cook them. They drink oil tho so be careful!

They don't need any preparing other than slicing. There used to be this thing whereby cook books always told you to salt them to bring out the bitter juices but I don't know anyone who does that anymore. (dp is chef and has never done it with them) (I think I read somewhere that they use different strains of aubergine now (or something) so salting isn't necessary. My old Delia book goes on about salting them for hours, but I notice her new ones don't.

Modern varieties of aubergine don't need to be 'prepared' any more. I think you used to have to slice and salt them and press them for hours to remove bitterness. Just slice and use!

x posts

thank you . it's an ancient cookbook that used to be my mums I'm using so it assumes I "know" these things.

It's not a pasta bake it's a Cheshire Aubergine Layer (oooo-errr)

oooh aubergine bake. do post any recipes please

will post it later - if I put a book near the computer to copy it out now DS3 will grab the book and tear to shreds

Yep, the salt thing is not necessary as modern strains are not bitter, but it does still have the effect of drying out some of the water content which is an advantage in some recipes. You don't need to do anything though.

well they're currently sat being salted as we speak. I think reducing the water content would help in this dish - as it's got a white sauce in it.

And as I've had a few disaster bacon and onion hotpots because of the water content of the bacon where the water has come out of the bacon in the oven cooking in the carefully prepared lovely creamy white sauce (I now cook the bacon first to reduce the effect and it's made a huge difference)

So I have wasted my entire life salting aubergines unnecessarily?

Great!

No need to salt. I always did but it makes no difference IME>

well the paper towels are very wet so the salt has obviously got some water out - and if it reduces the chances of having a lovely white sauce turned horrible with water seeping out I'm all for it.