Eggplant Recipes

The Eggplant, also known as the Aubergine in Europe and Britain, is one of the least widely appreciated vegetables in the Western World. As its Latin name, "Solanum Melongena" indicates, the Eggplant is the only member of the Deadly Nightshade family to originate in the Eastern Hemisphere and is closely related to the Tomato, Potato and the Pepper. In fact, like its cousin, the Tomato, the Eggplant's popularity was stifled in Europe and North America until relatively recent years due to its association to Nightshade. Where as the Tomato was believed to be poisonous, the Eggplant was believed by superstitious Europeans to induce insanity and was unaffectionate known as the "Mad Apple" until only a few centuries ago.

Eggplants are native to the general Southeast Asian region of India and modern day Pakistan and were first domesticated there over 4000 years ago, especially in the vicinities of Burma and Assam. In its home region, the Eggplant is used in many local dishes and carries a wide range of names in Bengalese, Hindustani, Urdu, Sanskrit and other local languages. In fact, the Eggplant's true species name "Melongena" is an ancient name for Eggplant in Sanskrit. Within its home region, the purple fruited Eggplant were the first to be domesticated.

In time, Eggplant soon spread into neighboring China by about 500 B.C. and became a culinary favorite to generations of Chinese emperors. About 500 A.D., a Chinese scholar put up the first written record of Eggplant and states that they had become popular among all classes of the Chinese people some two centuries earlier. The Chinese viewed the Eggplant differently than the Indians did and soon developed their own unique varieties. In particular, they preferred smaller fruited Eggplant, as well as differing shapes and colors.

From India and Pakistan, the Eggplant soon spread West into the Middle East and into the Lower Stans regions, as far west as Egypt and northward into Turkey. Arabic records of Eggplant exist from the 9th, 10th and 12th centuries and Eggplant are an important part of Arabic, Turkish and Persian cuisine. The Turks alone are believed to have over 1000 native recipes calling for the use of Eggplant in varying ways.

In the 4th through 7th centuries A.D., the Moors introduced the Eggplant to Spain and the vegetable soon spread throughout Europe. The 16th century Spaniards had great respect for the Eggplant and believed its fruit to be a powerful aphrodisiac; hence they referred to them as "Berengenas" or the "Apple of Love". The Italians too, held the Eggplant in very regard and called them "Melanzana".

Northern Europeans, however, were not so kind to the Eggplant. Albert of Cologne described the Eggplant in the 13th Century and referred to them as "Mala Insane", a corruption of the Italian name "Melanzana". By the 16th century, Eggplant was widely known in Europe as "Mad Apples" and was believed to induce insanity if consumed. Despite this, a few people did respect the Eggplant and in 1550, both purple and yellow varieties were introduced to Germany from Naples, Italy. By 1600, white Eggplants, as well those with ash-colored and brown colored fruit, as well as those with pear shaped, round, oblong and long, thin fruit were also known in Germany.

The English were responsible for coining the name "Eggplant" in regards to a variety with egg shaped, white fruit that they became familiar with, yet strangely, they refer to them today by the French name of Abergine, which is a corruption of the Catalonian name "Alberginia". There are hundreds of ways to prepare Eggplant in your kitchen in ways that will suit the taste of Eggplant fan!