Eggplant, 15th of November 2015.

Watercolor. 19 cm x 28 cm.

Eggplant (above) was painted on 3rd of August this year. The fruit was still small and it should have been left to grow up, but it was "sacrificed" for the sake of art.

I like eggplants best when they are fried in breadcrumbs. I peel their skin, slice them, salt them and pepper them, sprinkle them with >> Worcestershire sauce, sometimes add some curry if I feel like it, leave them for about 20 mins, and then put them in flour, beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, and then in deep oil until they turn yellow-reddish-brown (but not dark brown !). Such eggplants can be eaten while still warm, but they are tasty for a whole day after they are prepared. Of course, eggplants are great as a component of braised meat sauces, pasta sauces and similar, but they should not be thermally overworked, otherwise they will completely lose their identity.

Many avoid bitterness of eggplants, but eggplants are best when a touch of bitterness (originating from nicotinoid alkaloids) remains in them - too much of it is no good, and not enough of it makes their taste too plain.

Eggplants in the image below were painted by >> Jean-Théodore Descourtilz (1796 - 1855) for his father's book Flore Medicale des Antilles. Jean-Théodore's father, >> Michel Étienne Descourtilz (1777 - 1835) was a French physician, botanist and historiographer. The painted eggplant was denoted as Morelle melongene and it is obviously somewhat different from the one I painted. Descourtilz's eggplant from Antilles comes also in white variant and its flower has only five petals, in contrast with "mine" which has eight of them (interestingly, the flower of Chinese >> eggplant has six petals). The fruit of eggplant from Antilles is also more spherical.

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Last updated on 15th of November 2015.