One of the most convenient and popular ways of preserving many products of plant origin (mushrooms, fruits, vegetables, berries, herbs), perhaps, has always been and remains drying. This is explained not only by its simplicity and low investment of time and effort, but also by the fact that during the drying process, much more useful substances are preserved in any of these products than during canning. Today we will dry eggplants.
After all, in winter it is not so easy to find this vegetable in markets and stores. Dried eggplants can be used in much the same way as fresh ones. The only difference is that before cooking they need to be soaked in hot water for some time to soften them.
When choosing vegetables for drying, you should pay attention to their quality. For example, limp, bruised, damaged and rotten eggplants are not suitable in this case. But dense fruits with smooth and even skin without any dents or other defects can be an excellent raw material for drying.
We will not resort to using an electric dryer or oven, but will dry the eggplants in the open air, that is, in the most natural way.
Ingredients:
- eggplant;
- dessert spoon of coarse salt;
- approximately 1.5 liters of tap water.
In addition, we will need several wooden skewers, which are used for grilling kebabs.
Preparation time: 40-45 minutes plus several days for drying.
How to dry eggplants:
Place a saucepan with tap water over high heat. We rinse the vegetable (you can simply wipe it with a damp cloth) and cut it into rings 1 cm thick. If you wish, you can remove the skin, but along with it many useful elements will be lost.
Immediately throw the eggplant rings into boiling water and press with a lid (plate) so that parts of the vegetable do not stick out. Leave it like this for 2-3 minutes (with the heat off). This will release some of the bitterness from the eggplant.
Then drain the water and place the rings in a sieve (colander).
Now, in order to drive out even more bitterness from the vegetable, we throw the eggplant rings into cool water, in which we previously mixed the prepared salt, and leave for 25-30 minutes.
After this time, take out each ring, place it on a cloth towel and blot it, lightly pressing it to the table surface. That is, we try to squeeze out as much moisture as possible from the vegetable.
Let's proceed to the final stage of active actions - we string eggplant rings onto wooden skewers (by the way, you can use thick, harsh thread instead of skewers). Carefully pierce the center of each ring with the end of a skewer and distribute evenly at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other.
Choosing a place for drying. We placed skewers with vegetable rings on the balcony, attaching them by the ends using clothespins to a stretched rope.
Within a day, the eggplant rings shriveled and became completely soft.
And after another four days they dried thoroughly.
One small eggplant made a very modest pile of small dried chips. All that remains is to put them away for storage in some clean, dry jar with a lid (plastic or glass). If there is no lid, you can use parchment and tie it with strong thread. By the way, you can also store dried eggplants in linen or paper bags, hanging them in the pantry or in a room where moisture does not penetrate. But next to them there should not be any products that emit strong odors (such as coffee, spices, herbs, spicy seasonings), and certainly no chemicals. Dried eggplants very quickly absorb third-party aromas, which will certainly affect their taste.
Alternatively, you can dry the eggplant slices by placing them on parchment or a mosquito net. But in this case, it is necessary to turn each circle over to the other side every day so that the vegetable dries evenly.
Enjoy using it!
