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Eggplant Saute, Bordelaise
Peel and cut in half-inch squares a medium, sound eggplant. Heat a tablespoon melted butter in a frying pan, add eggplant. Season with half teaspoon salt and three saltspoons pepper and cook on a brisk fire five minutes, tossing meanwhile. Add six finely chopped shallots, toss well and cook three minutes, then add half a bean chopped garlic and half a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, pour in a half gill claret, mix well, then let reduce till nearly dry. Pour in one gill of demi-glace. Mix well and let cook five minutes, occasionally tossing meanwhile. Pour into a vegetable dish and serve.
A straightforward French saute that depends on two things the original assumes you have on hand: demi-glace and a hot pan. Read the notes on fat and heat before starting, since eggplant behaves badly in a lightly greased pan.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so three saltspoons is about three-quarters of a teaspoon of pepper. That is a lot of pepper for one eggplant; a half teaspoon is closer to modern taste.
- GillA gill is half a cup. The half gill of claret is a quarter cup, and the gill of demi-glace is a half cup.
- A bean of garlicA "bean" means a piece of garlic about the size of a bean, in practice roughly a clove or a little less. Half of that, finely chopped, is all that is meant.
- ClaretIn an American book of this period claret means dry red Bordeaux. Any dry, unoaked red works; avoid anything sweet or heavily oaked, since the wine is reduced almost to nothing and any sugar concentrates.
- Demi-glaceBrown veal stock reduced with espagnole sauce to a glossy, lightly thickened sauce. Good jarred or frozen demi-glace is sold now; at a pinch, reduce a cup of strong brown stock to a half cup and thicken it lightly. Bouillon cubes will make the dish salty and thin.
- One tablespoon of butter is not enoughCubed eggplant absorbs fat immediately and then sticks. Use three to four tablespoons of butter, or butter with a little oil, and give the cubes room in a wide pan so they brown rather than steam.
- Brisk fireMedium-high to high heat. The five minutes of tossing is meant to colour the outside of the cubes; if the pan is crowded or cool they will slump into a puree before the shallots go in.
- Salting the eggplantModern varieties are generally less bitter than older ones, so the old habit of salting and draining is usually optional. It does firm the flesh slightly and reduces how much butter it drinks, if you have twenty minutes to spare.
- YieldOne medium eggplant gives three to four side servings. It is best served straight from the pan; reheated, the cubes collapse.
"Bordelaise" in classical French cookery means the shallot-and-red-wine treatment associated with Bordeaux: shallots and wine reduced nearly dry, then bound with a brown sauce. It is most familiar on steak, where marrow is often added, but the same base was also applied to vegetables, kidneys, mushrooms and eggs, which is why an eggplant turns up wearing it here. The reliance on a ready gill of demi-glace suggests professional writing, since it assumes a brown sauce already made and waiting. Eggplant itself was still faintly exotic in American home cooking, appearing mainly in Creole, Italian and French-influenced books.