[Eggplant] Saving Summer Vegetables by Vacuum-Packing and Freezing, Good for quick cooking

Eggplants are in season from summer to fall in Japan.
They are often sold in bags of 4 or 5 per bag at the supermarket, and they sometimes become damaged and wrinkled before you had a chance to eat.
They are also a difficult to store because they quickly turn discolored and brown once they are cut.

In this article, we try to vacuum-pack, freeze, and cook Japanese eggplant.

Vacuum pack

After washing with water and cutting the hefty part, cut into pieces
Soak the sliced eggplant in water for about 10 minutes to remove the harsh taste of them.
Wipe off the water from the eggplant using paper towels.

Wipe off the water from the eggplant using paper towels.

Vacuum pack them.

This time, we used the vacuum sealer DUCKY. For details on the DUCKY vacuum packer, click here.



After vacuum packing, take them to the freezer.

Two weeks later

There is no discoloration, no frost (no freezer burn), and it is protected from drying out.

Because eggplant is a high-moisture vegetable, the freezing process breaks down its fibers.
This makes it easier for the eggplant to soak up the flavor.
Cooking curry or ratatouille with frozen eggplant is recommended because it will easily become as delicious as if it had been stewed for a long time.
Cut up and frozen eggplant can be easily used for miso soup or for making side dishes for lunch boxes.

When you cook them, it is better to cook them in the frozen condition, not defrosting them.
In addition, be careful when you cook frozen eggplant, as it tends to get oil spatter.

I cooked a eggplant and tuna stir-fry with Ponzu using the frozen eggplant.

It is a quick and easy dish, just grill eggplant in a frying pan and season with canned tuna and Ponzu at the end.
The eggplant soaked up the ponzu well and was delicious.
The eggplant is easy to break down after freezing, so it would be better not to touch it too much when you cook it, but that makes it easier to soak up the flavor, and it will be useful when you want to make one more dish.

Vacuum pack and frozen eggplant is convenient, and highly recommended.

【Product details】

Vacuum sealers
https://asahi-packaging.com/genre/vacuum-sealer/