Introduction: Does drying eggplant easily turn black? If you do these 3 steps more, it will taste good and chewy, and it will not go bad easily after being stored for a year.
Although the weather is hot in summer, there is also a lot of rain, which is very suitable for the growth and maturity of vegetables. Therefore, summer is the season with the largest variety of vegetables. In autumn and winter, many vegetables may not be available. Therefore, many people will buy more vegetables in summer when there are more varieties and cheaper prices. After drying the vegetables, they can be eaten in autumn and winter.
Because the nutritional value of eggplant is relatively high and the dishes made are more delicious, eggplant will become the first choice when drying vegetables. Many people think that drying eggplant is the easiest, just cut it into pieces and dry it in the sun!
However, the dried eggplants dried in this way are not only prone to blackening and deterioration, but also have a hard texture and no chewiness at all. Today I would like to share with you my grandma’s experience of drying vegetables for more than 50 years. She said that if you want to dry eggplants well, you need to do these three steps:
Step 1: Select eggplants
To dry eggplants, the first step is to select the eggplants. Choose fresh eggplants, the fatter the meat, the better, so the taste will be better. If the eggplant itself has no meat, it will become even drier and harder after being dried.
Another option is to choose purple eggplants that are darker in color, have shiny skin and are not damaged. The nutritional value of purple eggplant is higher. If there is damage on the eggplant, the dried eggplant will easily deteriorate.
Step 2: Process the eggplant
. Most of the nutrients of eggplant are in the eggplant skin, so the eggplant skin must be retained. If you are worried about pesticide residues, you can put the eggplant in a basin, add an appropriate amount of water, salt and baking soda , soak it for fifteen minutes, and then rinse it.
. After washing the eggplant, cut off the head and tail, and then cut it into long thick strips. Put the sliced eggplant strips into a basin and sprinkle salt evenly. Don't sprinkle too much, otherwise it will be very salty after drying. If you are afraid of spreading it unevenly, you can rub each eggplant strip with salt by hand. Spread salt and marinate for about 2 hours. The purpose of this is to remove the moisture from the eggplant.
. Pour enough water into the pot, bring the water to a boil over high heat, put the steamer on, evenly spread the pickled eggplant on top, cover the pot, and steam over high heat for about 2 minutes. Don't steam the eggplant for a long time, as it will easily cause the eggplant to rot. Steam for about 2 minutes and then dry in the sun. The dried eggplants will be more tough and chewy.
4. Take out the steamed eggplant, put it into a larger dustpan, and spread it out flat. Then put it in the sun to dry. In hot weather like now, it can be dried in one or two days. However, when drying, turn it over after a few hours to ensure that the eggplants are evenly dried.
Step 3: Store the dried eggplants
. Storage is also a very important step. Put the dried eggplant into a sealed bag, seal it and store it in the refrigerator. You can also put it into a breathable cloth bag and hang it in a cool and ventilated place. However, with this preservation method, you need to dry the eggplant after a while and blow it in the sun to prevent it from getting damp and deteriorating.
Dried eggplants that have been dried can generally be stored for about a year, so you can enjoy delicious dried eggplants even in winter. There are many ways to make dried eggplant. My favorite is dried eggplant stew, which is more delicious than fresh eggplant. It is so happy to be able to eat delicious eggplants in the cold winter.
If you dry the eggplants in the sun, they will turn black easily, have no chewy texture, and cannot be stored for a long time. You might as well take a look at the 3 steps above. Remember to do these 3 more steps when drying eggplants in the future, and you will be able to dry delicious dried eggplants.
