The Clever Trick To Peel Roasted Eggplant In A Snap
Roasted eggplant is the star of the show in dishes like baba ganoush where it's combined with tahini and lemon to make a smoky, show-stopping dip. However, peeling it once it's roasted can be a messy job. Luckily, you can access all the soft flesh under it's charred skin in a snap using a simple sheet of plastic wrap and a sharp knife.
Demonstrated in this Tiktok from @tastegreatfoodie, all you need to do is place your whole roasted eggplant on your plastic wrap and roll it up before twisting the open sides together (so it looks like a Christmas cracker). Then cut off the very end of the star-shaped stem (also known as the calyx) with a sharp knife, slicing straight through the plastic. You can then pick up the wrapped eggplant, hold it vertically over a container and squeeze out the flesh through the opening using a downward movement. Take care to squeeze from the top to the bottom to guarantee every last bit of the eggplant and its smoky, savory juices slide out into your bowl, ready to be used in your favorite eggplant recipes, such as Persian kashke bademjan and Pakistani baingan bharta, where the flesh needs to be concentrated, yielding, and mashable. Then you can discard the skin along with the plastic in one mess-free move.
Pierce your eggplant before roasting to prevent it from bursting
Just one word of warning; before roasting your eggplant, make sure to make a couple of slits along the surface with a sharp knife (or prick it's circumference a few times with a fork). This will allow the steam that generates inside the body of the eggplant to escape safely. Skip this step and your eggplant could fill with steam, burst inside your oven and make a huge, annoying mess. To catch any sticky juices that are released from the pierced flesh, always roast your eggplants on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Alternatively, place them directly on an oven shelf and broil each side, placing parchment paper on the base of the oven to catch any drips that could burn and leave a lingering odor in your kitchen.
Want to lend your eggplant a deeper smokier note? Roast it over an open flame. Simply place it on top of your burner and turn it regularly using tongs. This technique will imbue the lush, scoop-able flesh with a barbecue-like aroma, and almost shrink it down, giving your eggplant dishes a rich, complex flavor. Just bear in mind that the blackened skin will likely become crispy as it dries out and could crack off. In this case, once your eggplant is cooked and cooled, remove a length of the charred skin and use a spoon to scoop out the softened interior.