I grew up with two types of eggplants: big, almost black Italian eggplants, and tiny, almost black dried eggplants. My mother’s family came from Syria, and her two preparations were recipes from her mother. The fresh eggplants were baked until they collapsed and the custard-soft interior was pureed with tahini, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and a little salt to make what we just referred to as “eggplant dip.” The tiny dried eggplants were stuffed with a mixture of regular long-grain rice with minced lamb or beef and braised.
Fast-forward a few decades and witness the rise of Asian eggplants. Tiny green Thai eggplants, long slender Japanese eggplants in every shade of purple, white eggplant, eggplants striped in purple and white. I remember a decade ago when I began subscribing to a farm’s community supported program and these “odd” eggplants began to appear. What was I supposed to do with them?
After a year or two of treating them as another option for baba ghanoush, I finally began branching out. Mostly with stir-fries.
But this summer, I ran across a recipe for an Eggplant Omelet, a popular breakfast dish in the Philippines. Never having used “eggplant” and “omelet” in the same paragraph, let alone sentence, I had to give it a try.
Reading through a recipe for “tortang talong” posted by Joe Sevier at Epicurious.com, the method started out in a familiar way: cook the eggplant until the interior is completely soft, then proceed.
I learned after a few batches that I didn’t need the two eggs in the original recipe. It turned out one was enough to produce an eggplant cutlet surrounded by softly cooked egg but with a crisp exterior. It really will remind you of an omelet. Sevier enjoys his tortang talong with a slice of melon. I added diced yellow tomato instead.
C. W. Cameron
C. W. Cameron
Adapted from a recipe at Epicurious.com.
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