I confess to having been seduced by eggplant. When I first started buying eggplant years ago, it was because I couldn't resist its firm curves and taut, shiny skin. I bought it for its looks, but somewhere along the way, this superficial attraction developed into love and respect as I learned to cook with it in many ways. And while I now use this versatile vegetable in soups, curries, stir-fries, and sautés, two of my favorite ways to cook it are roasting and grilling.
Old-fashioned dark-purple eggplant is what hooked me. But now my market carries a range of exotic colors, including lavender and pink (often striped with white), pure pearly white, pale green, white or pale green striped with dark green, and even bright orange. Shapes range from the traditional oblong to teardrop (often called Italian) to long and skinny to round. Most of the different types can be used interchangeably, although the very small eggplant are best suited to pickling. While I think the purple eggplant are prettiest (and meatiest) for roasting and grilling, paler-skinned ones have a milder flavor.
At the market, choose plump, firm eggplant with shiny skin that shows no sign of slackness; over-the-hill fruits are liable to be bitter. An eggplant with a smaller calyx—the leathery, green cap that protrudes from the stem—will often have fewer seeds than one with a larger calyx. If you're growing eggplant, harvest them at any time after they size up and their skin turns shiny, but don't wait too long. Once the skin loses its gloss, an eggplant's quality deteriorates.
