July 31st, 2021

Baby eggplant. Japanese eggplant. White eggplant. Striped Calliope eggplant. The night shades are flooding the produce bins. Some people love eggplant, others won't go near it. Usually, it's because they've had a "bitter" run-in with an eggplant at some point. Eggplant doesn't taste bitter unless it's past its prime and so it's unlikely you will find a bitter eggplant at the farmer's market.

That being said, there are things you can do to extract the bitterness from your eggplant if you let it sit too long in your fridge post-purchase. You can either douse your cubed or sliced eggplant with salt and let it sit for an hour on a tray. This will extract water from the flesh, and with it, the bitter. Just lightly rinse your eggplant to remove the excess salt before cooking.

Or, a lesser known but equally effective technique, is to soak your eggplant in milk for about 30 minutes prior to cooking. Not only does the milk tame the bitterness, but it renders the eggplant more creamy since the spongy vegetable soaks up the milk in its flesh. Scooping out the seeds also works. The older the eggplant the more seeds it will harbor.

Different varieties of eggplant are better for different preparations. Thai eggplant is great in curries, Chinese eggplant in stir-fries, etc. Your more voluptuous eggplant works best for dishes like this eggplant parmigiano. Don't forget to grab your mozzarella from Di Riso to make this dish sing. Or for something completely different, you can dust off your wok and try this japanese-eggplant-chicken-thai-basil-stir-fry.

We are so happy to welcome No Place Like Home Spanish cuisine and the Poke Motion Food Truck as guest prepared food vendors this Saturday.

Spanish chef Alberto Alvarez hails from Madrid where he mastered the art of making paella (seafood, chicken, and vegetarian) and tortilla Española (the popular potato omelet that is the mainstay and culinary barometer of all tapas bars in Spain.) He will also be bringing a seasonal zucchini tortilla española. He will be making a large vat of paella at the market and it will be ready after 10:15 a.m.

Poke Motion makes traditional protein bowls like tuna sesame bowl (pictured), cilantro shrimp and peanut chicken satay, over your choice of rice or noodles. Grab some paella for lunch, and some poke for dinner to give yourself a break on Saturday, "errand" day. You can make the eggplant parm on Sunday!

AYA Hummus is unveiling a new flavor this weekend: Lemon basil! Jody's Kitchen is preparing corn and crab chowder. And Hamov Eh returns with her oh so delicious Armenian sauces/pastes.

Sometimes things just work out. On the very day we bring you Spanish cuisine we also bring you flamenco music courtesy of Edmund Horada. He will start playing right when the paella is ready. (Regretfully, we have no Hawaiian ukulele tunes to go with the Poke).

See you at the market!