Brilliant Brinjals

The Brinjals or Egg Plants are producing profusely and the two varieties, Listada de Gandia and Long Purple makes for a colourful display in the vegetable garden.

Brinjals

I would like to make moussaka and baba ganoush but it will have to wait until I can invite guests over and I can get hold of Tahini. The Arabic meaning for baba ganoush is “pampered papa” , perhaps this is a sign for whom I should make it.

To process a big harvest I decided to preserve them in olive oil with garlic slivers and fresh basil pesto. Most of the preparation time went into the salting of the brinjals to extract the bitterness.  I find that the fresh organic brinjals from the garden do not seem to be bitter. I roasted them without salting them first and they are delicious prepared like that.

Salted Brinjals

For the sake of the recipe that I used I salted them first and let them stand for 3 to 4 hours, then I blanched them in vinegar water before I bottled them. The garlic slivers and basil pesto were my own twist on the recipe. I do not follow recipes religiously and tend to add what is available in the garden as well. There is a forest of basil in the herb garden with Opal, Lemon and Sweet basil and I just had to use some.

I preserved the brinjals and they will be a welcome addition to a farmer’s platter in late autumn when the brinjal plants in the vegetable garden will only be a memory of summer.