"Spigariello" & baby Turkish eggplants (Green

"Spigariello" & baby Turkish eggplants (Green City Market)

Though Amata has been there before, I finally made it for my first time to Saturday's Green City Market. The market was absolutely delightful in various ways and we had the added pleasure of seeing Aaron Deacon and his family over at the Purple Asparagus stand.

Two things I think might be worth mentioning here:

• "spigariello": This is a green of Southern Italian origin (the name itself bears a sound-shape appropriate for Neapolitan dialect). We got to the market late and bought what was the last bundle at the Kinnikinnick stand. For lovers of bitter greens, this is a good one, with an interesting mix of characteristics. The stems are rather tough (and mind you, they were clearly fairly young and thin) and to my mind seem to share not just the toughness but an aspect of flavour as well with collard greens. On the other hand, they also can be compared to good (i.e. properly bitter) broccoli di rape. I cooked them up simply, with olive oil, garlic, crushed red chile and added some (already cooked) giant beans. With a chunk of Masi's bread, ordered extra-well-done and crispy, this combination was wonderful.

• baby Turkish eggplants: Over at the Nichols' stand, we bought a carton of the amazingly colourful little Turkish eggplants, which are a bright orange with some small white strips. These were sautéed and combined with an assortment of tiny tomatoes from the same farm, olive oil, garlic and a very generous amount of fresh basil from our own garden to serve as the dressing for some fusilli lunghi. With a little ricotta salata, this eggplant-pasta dish was a success, with the special characteristics of the Turkish eggplants standing out.

Antonius

Spelling of proper name corrected.

Are these bright orange "Turkish" eggplants different from what Nichols has sold as Nigerian eggplants in the past? What was the texture and size?

I saw orange eggplants at Nichols in Evanston on Saturday, but didn't look closely as I had just grilled a large eggplant as part of a kind of grilled vegetable take on a ratatouille (very good it was) and was kind of eggplanted out. Himself is quite allergic to them, so it falls to me to eat most of it, which I had been doing for breakfast and lunch.

Next time I do it I will use up that last bit of ricotta salata, that sounds like a good combination.

annieb wrote:Are these bright orange "Turkish" eggplants different from what Nichols has sold as Nigerian eggplants in the past? What was the texture and size?

Hmm... Now I seem to recall them also having something called 'Nigerian eggplants' but don't remember clearly what they looked like. Have I confused the one with the other? Perhaps, but then I was led down the path of confusion by the sales person, whom I remember distinctly explaining that these little orange fellows were "Turkish". I guess I'll have to go back this Saturday and check!

The ones I bought were walnut size and slightly bigger, very brightly coloured, with a very shiny, smooth skin. The flesh was quite firm, with white seeds prominent, thought the seeds were tender and not at all unpleasant to eat. The flavour was definitely closer to what eggplants (apparently) used to be like, that is, there was a nice little bitter edge. I would imagine that an eggplant variety with a slight bitter edge at a small stage (I'm guessing one could grow these at least somewhat larger) would have a more pronounced bitter edge when they're bigger.

Antonius

We got some of Nichols' small red/orange eggplants - not sure whether they were Turkish, Nigerian, or whatever - but they were golfball-to-almost-baseball sized. We baked them, scooped out the innards, mixed the innards with mushrooms, shallots, feta and water chestnuts (wanted to use pine nuts for the texture, but couldn't find and, so we settled on water chestnuts instead), stuffed 'em & re-baked them. Turned out pretty well, except for the few leftovers that my nephew dumped on thje litchen floor (accidentally, he said).

nr706 wrote:We got some of Nichols' small red/orange eggplants - not sure whether they were Turkish, Nigerian, or whatever - but they were golfball-to-almost-baseball sized. We baked them, scooped out the innards, mixed the innards with mushrooms, shallots, feta and water chestnuts (wanted to use pine nuts for the texture, but couldn't find and, so we settled on water chestnuts instead), stuffed 'em & re-baked them. Turned out pretty well, except for the few leftovers that my nephew dumped on thje litchen floor (accidentally, he said).

nr706:

Excellent idea to stuff them; the ones you got were a little bigger than the ones we got, which were more in the walnut to golf ball range of size and a bit too small for stuffing. I'll look for the bigger size on Saturday (when I try to figure out whether they're Turkish or Nigerian...)...

I recently ran out of pine nuts and restocked with a not too expensive bag of the good ones (not Chinese) from Al Khyam; the bag was not dusty and it looks like the nuts are in good shape. Pesto, daoud pasha (lamb-beef meatballs in tomato sauce with pine nuts) and stuffed vegetables are now the intended uses.

Antonius

They do sound like the Nigerian ones, which I liked. Stuffing is a good idea as the skin is quite a bit more durable than the purple eggplants.

Nichols has also had white eggplants in the past, although I can't bring myself to try them since reading years ago that in parts of North Africa there are lots of superstitions about fertility and eggplants, especially ones that were light in color.

Nichols purported to have 12 varieties of eggplant at the Eli's/Dunning farmers market last Thursday. We didn't count them, though, and certainly didn't buy any due the the production level from two varieties in our yard. Eggplant love this hot weather and are producing like crazy.

Antonius wrote:• baby Turkish eggplants: Over at the Nichols' stand, we bought a carton of the amazingly colourful little Turkish eggplants, which are a bright orange with some small white strips...

The question arose above whether the little bright orange fellows were 'Nigerian' or 'Turkish'. I checked again last Saturday and they were clearly marked as 'Turkish Eggplants', sitting alongside the little green 'Thai' eggplants.

N.B The little baby beet greens at Kinnikinnick last week were outstandingly rich in flavour. See here for suggested serving:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=41025#41025
The tenderness of them was great too, allowing for very quick cooking.

Antonius