I don’t own a grill. The grill where you can do your barbeques and make paneer tikka and garlic bread? Yeah, I don’t have that. Not even an anti-social sized one that helps me make portions enough for two. And before you ask, no, my microwave does not come with a grill.
But, does that stop me from grilling? Hell no! Being a self-confessed eggplant lover, how can I not grill it and make those yummy grilled eggplant recipes?
So I got an eggplant one Saturday.
It was nice and fresh and fat when I bought it on this particular Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn’t use it for a whole week and when I took it out the next Saturday morning, it had slightly begun to wilt and rot at the stalk. Just slightly though.
That’s ok. Just chop off a bit from the stalk part and place it on a plate.
Stick a thick wooden skewer or slim spoon or something similar through the middle of the cut portion.
Take 1 tsp oil and coat the eggplant well. Go on, don’t be a wuss and use your hand to do the oil massage.
Switch on your stove and keep it on low fire. Hold the wooden skewer firmly and place the oiled eggplant near the fire. Keep rotating slowly making sure all the sides get even heat.
The skin will being to shrivel and the skin starts getting charred. Make sure no sides burn by evenly distributing the heat.
Place on a plate and let it cool a bit.
Peel the charred skin and remove completely. The resulting eggplant meat will be soft, semi-cooked and very fragrant because of the stove-top grilling.
We can make a bunch of interesting stuff with grilled eggplant. Watch this space for the recipes 🙂
Mmmm looks good and I too do the same .. nice pictures..
Parita, you hold the eggplant in your hand while grilling?! wow that sounds scary! how do you prevent your hands from getting burnt?
I use both the methods grill as well as stove top…Infact I even prick it with fork well and do oil massage before grilling,….after grilling immerse it in cold water..it makes the peeling job easier…try doing that next time dear
I too do the same way,stove top method 🙂
We don't even have a gas stove here (it's electric range) so I broil it in the oven. Apply oil and cut it in half. Place the skin side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and spray some oil on the open side too. Bake it at 350 for 25-30 minutes and then broil it for 5 minutes to get that black charred appearance. I do this when I'm baking something else in the oven. So 2 in 1. Then use a spoon to just scoop the pulp out.
The step by step pictures are great. Could you do one like this for making white sauce?
Even I prepared the eggplant for begun bharta in a similar way. Once I tried to grill it in the MW, and it was awful, the egg plant got totally dried up, my thick and healthy looking aubergine turned to a thin and dried up one 🙁
Ah, now I can associate eggplants and lollipops together! I used to stick a fork in it until I found some device that's like a fan with a steel plate full of holes on a wooden stick – now I put that on the flame and the brinjal on that.
And like your expression 'anti-social sized one'. Nice pix of the gleaming and oiled eggplants!
Hey Nags, thanks for your message. I've been following both your blogs for quite sometime. I tried the veg biryani recipe from here and just loved it. I had left a message there long back too!
We had a grill party last weekend and grilled sliced eggplants. It tasted awesome:)Waiting for recipes with grilled eggplant
Wow super idea! Will try this one. Iam sure stove top is more efficient and faster than in an oven