Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <eggplant><vegetables>
Title: Preparing eggplant with less oil
Question: I love cooking with eggplant (or aubergine/brinjal in your specific English flavor).   However to get rid of the bitter taste and slightly spongy texture, I end up using huge amounts of olive oil, which tends to make the dish heavy overall. I've had some success with grilling the eggplant, but for sauté or oven baking I always grab my oil and apply liberally.   Are there any tips/preparations I can use to reduce the bitterness and sponginess of eggplant using less oil?

Answers:
sents: text: Put salt on the eggplant and let it sit for an hour to drain out the bitter fluids.
text: Rinse with water afterwards to remove the salt.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/122/jumoel
score: 8
sents: text: One old trick is to cook the aubergine in a pan without adding any fat or water .
text: Just put them in a covered pan on moderate heat.
text: After a while the aubergines will start "sweating".
text: Uncover and continue cooking and stirring until they have lost about half of their volume.
text: Then add oil and proceed as directed by your recipe.
text: You will notice that, since the spongy structure of the aubergine has collapsed, they will absorb much less oil.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/4558/Walter A. Aprile
score: 8
sents: text: As @jmoeller says, slice and salt the eggplant.
text: Preferably wait for an hour, but even 15 minutes takes out some.
text: I usually just use a papertowel to remove bitter fluids and most of the water.
text: If you then desire them fried, but not too much oil.
text: Frying in the oven requires much less oil.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/176/leiflundgren
score: 4
sents: text: If you want to make eggplant Parmesan without frying the eggplant at all, you can slice, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, then place on a baking sheet in the oven at 350F for 5-7 minutes on each side.
text: Then use to prepare Parmesan as usual.
text: In this dish, it never tastes bitter to me.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/1229/kiamlaluno
score: 1
sents: text: Grill them.
text: Slice, salt, wait, rinse as per previous answers.
text: Lightly brush them with oil, garlic, and herbs provencal.
text: Put on a grill until you get zebra stripes on both sides.
text: Move to top rack, and let them bake while you do your steaks.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/1148/Chris Cudmore
score: 1
sents: text: You're half right, after slicing (I do 1 to 2 cm slices; 1/2 to 3/4 inch) and salting, stack the slices and put a towel or plate at the bottom of your stack(s) of slices and a weight at the top.
text: Have come up with some interesting weights, rocks from the stream, large cans of vegies, gallon jug full of water, etc.
text: After the stack has shrunk by half, remove the eggplant and rinse and dry it; the texture will be more like a very tender meat slice than the mushyness you are talking about.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/7092/Frankie
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Slice and salt the eggplant, then leave for an hour to drain. Paper towels can be placed underneath and a weight placed on top to help the process. Eggplant can be fried without fat or water, or breaded and baked in the oven at 350F for 5-7 minutes on each side. 
You can salt eggplant to draw out the bitterness. You can also add a weight to speed up the process. You can also try coating in egg and breadcrumbs or dry frying.