Lots of ways to fit eggplant. Slice , dip in egg, sluhed through a flour corn meal mix and pan fry is my favorite. basicly the same recipe as fried green tomatoes, but I like eggplant better. For me, the best tasteing are the Japanese/Chinese long types like Ichiban. Growing Fond May this year.
Favorite okra is Emerald, but Cowhorn is good. Pole beans are hit and miss here. Stage 4 drought this year with temps in the high 90's since April. Doubt if I make seed in pole beans this year.

My favorites for eggplant are Rosita, PingTung, and Ichiban. Okra favorites are Emerald & Cowhorn. I'm not a pole bean fan, I prefer Contender bush beans. However, I do plant the black seed Asparagus beans (aka Chinese long beans). These grow similar to pole beans.

I never salt eggplant to remove bitterness. I have not noted any bitterness with any of the above eggplant varieties.

Why wait till next season? If you are actually in zone 7 you should have plenty of time. I like Clemson spineless and Cowhorn okra, and Blue lake beans. I'm not fond of eggplant so I don't plant it. I may try some Ichiban next year since farmerdill recommends it.

I only grow the Asian eggplants. Like grandad I don't find them bitter. I think that's because there are so few seeds.

Love them sliced, brushed with olive oil, and cooked on the grill. You can eat as is or top with freshly grated cheese or pesto. Yum!

Also not a pole bean fan. I grow bush beans in the spring and again in the fall.

Pole Bean - Fortex. No match for it.

Eggplant - Tsakoniki (a sweet Greek variety) and Ichiban

Okra - Clemson Spineless and Emerald

Dave

The bitterness has been bred out of most eggplants and is usually only a problem if the fruit's too mature.
Eggplant really suits smoky flavours: think grilling.

This thread is very interesting and I'm looking for okra and would love to try eggplant. The thing about cooking eggplant is that it absorbs flavors rather than emits them, that's the sponginess your talking about. My guess is that there wasn't enough flavor to absorb so it just stayed bitter. But I haven't grown them yet so I'm no expert. The way you describe eggplant to be cooked if it's likable-- that's how I feel about chicken lol. But I don't mind the smothering of the salt, cheese, breading, frying, and sauce. Grilling is an interesting suggestion. Due to this thread I will definitely be growing emerald okra next season, as well as an asian eggplant and a garden variety one. I want to compare flavors. maybe an Italian. Here's a site I've been looking at lately and their stuff looks good, I've researched and some of these varieties can be hard to find.
http://www.gourmetseed.com/

The only eggplants I grow now are Ping Tung which is a long Asian type eggplant. The skin is super thin and there are hardly any seeds even when they get pretty large. Hands down the best eggplant I ever tasted.

Another tip about cooking eggplant is that it absorbs a lot of oil especially if the heat is high. To make it healthier and still tasty, try using medium heat.

Grilled eggplant is delicious, simple and healthy. I throw all these things in the blender: a little oil, some lemon juice, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and some herbs like basil, oregano and parsley. Then I put it in a bowl with chicken or meat to marinate a little, and then grill the chicken/meat. Then I put some veggies in the same marinade -- eggplant, zucchini, peppers, maybe mushrooms (usually add a touch of vinegar at this point for more zing) -- and then grill them, spooning the last of the marinade over them as they grill. Yum! And of course you could alter this in countless ways, skip the meat, etc.

We use eggplant a lot, in many different ways, but this is my favorite recipe. If you want any other eggplant ideas, I can share more, but this is the one that highlights the eggplant in the simplest way rather than covering it with other things.

rattlesnake pole bean.

i agree with everyone on oriental eggplant being superior due to lack of seeds. i grow orient express.

I love eggplants! I like to grow white eggplants because I think they don't get bitter. I'm growing Gretal this year. I've also grown Cloud 9 and Casper.

Try putting some on pizza,or making a dip (Baba Ganoush) or ratatouille

Here is a link that might be useful: Ratatouille

Eggplant
Many say it is not needed, but for many dishes, I still soak sliced up eggplant in a strong saltwater solution for several hours in the fridge. The water will be discolored after soaking, sometimes just a little, other times it will be black as ink! This soaking does take away bitterness.

I enjoy many dishes with eggplant, but a great tasting starter is

Peel skin from eggplant
slice (either discs like potato slices of bits like French fries (I like FF method best) Soak in saltwater solution in fridge several hours minimum (I usually place a saucer on top to push all eggplant under water)

Drain in colander
Dredge in flour to coat (I usually put flour in ziplock bag add slices and shake and turn) Lay on plate or cookie sheet

Make a simple batter 1 egg to 1/3C water and 1/3C Flour, mix together until smooth. (I usually scale to amount I am making) Drop a few pieces of the floured eggplant into your bowl of batter to coat, remove from batter and place directly in hot oil to deepfry. Cook until a nice golden brown (You will need to turn as it will float to top while cooking)

Remove from fryer, place on cookie sheet covered with paper towel to absorb excess oils, salt and eat.......

Have had many people young and old alike eat this not knowing what it was and love it, yet most of these people say eeewwww to eggplant!

Battered and deep fried is not the healthiest way to enjoy this, but it is a great way to get accustomed to it's taste! Healthy or not it is a real favorite for several generations in our family!

I'm getting sooooooooo hungry now guys.

I love eggplant - eggplant parma freezes wonderfully for a "taste of summer" all winter too... Also make ratatouille - essentially a veggie stew with eggplant, onion, tomatoes, summer squashes (patty pan, crookneck, zukes...) and garlic. I saute the various veggies like onions and garlic, then eggplant, a bit of squash, then toss in tomatoes, some cut up sweet peppers, whatever and stew as needed. This freezes great in ziplocs and you can eat as a side dish or reheat and put over fresh pasta with grated cheese and some sausage or chicken breast or what have you. VERY good.

My fav tho is grilled eggplant - slice 1/4 inch thick, brush with a mixture of peanut oil, grated ginger and garlic, grill until tender and pretty.

Can you tell I'm anxious to eat the eggplant - almost ready to harvest the new varieties... I love Rosa Bianca and Whopper. Trying Listada and Black Beauty this year.

Cindy

I can't eat eggplant, it does very bad things to my stomach, but I will 3rd the Cowhorn okra reccomendation. I like all my pole beans, but a few favorite are Kentucky Wonder (classic flavor), Romano (good texture), and a funny kind called "shrimp beans". Those take a good long time, but are neat looking, have great texture and flavor, and tend to be very productive, at least in my experience. I forget the cultivar name, but do a search for that, maybe include the term "italian" since I seem to recall that's where they are from. I have yet to try Fortex, though I hear good things.

Cheers!

Thank you all for the response I will definetly try this year I'm buying the plants 'cause is kind of late to order seeds I remember seeing the ichiban and clemson varieties @ the depot store,the reason I want to try pole beans is 'cause I have about 20bush beans plants they don't produce as much as I expected aparently is common for the variety I have to collect at least 3 days to make southern style green beans to feed 4 people I guess it will be ok if I had room but I live in the city and space is limited,I love veggies I have notice that my kids are willing to try new things if they come from their backyard,today they try squash(mexican tatume)in a spanish tortilla or fritata thinly sliced with S+P,wow it remind me my childhood we use to eat the blossoms,young fruit,mature fruit and the seeds,basically everything,the plant is a monster but produces heavy I already picked 6 squahes and it has at least another 6 on the way...happy gardening people.

easiest way is just peeled eggplant cubed small or medium, fresh cut up tomatoes and your own basil. Bake till done....
Wow I eat it cold even....
I have only had about 4 eggplants so far even though I planted over 15. lesss now thanks to FLEA BEETLES) etc.
Now waiting for my countless volunteer mostly cherry tomatoes to come on strong.....
Cause I had to buy a can of tomatoes last night...It killed my soul..... hate the plastic in our cans..
so since my green peppers are coming on strong. searched my cookbooks and used celery, course eggplant and green pepper, some butter and hated but supposedly ORGANIC CANNED tomatoes ..... baked ... okay....
I even went to "allreceipes .com". kind of followed that greek or India one one ... Saut�ed eggplant, garlic, olive oil, onion, and tahini sauce. Ate the whole thing out of the skillet. Did not even blenderize it
course I do most of my cooking outside in garage or deck...... crock pot, convection oven, propane 2 burner unit....Do not want to heat up house..... just my 2 cents worth yall
jean
.

Itzy, snap beans heat check in the worst heat of summer. That is probably why your bush beans are producing so poorly. If you can keep them alive, they will probably pick up and produce again when it cools down in a few weeks. I sowed some new pole beans this week. Last year the late summer sowing gave a wonderful harvest until frost.

I am one more vote for Ping tung eggplant. It is absolutely delicious. I recently read in a cookbook that when you soak the pieces in salt (or salt water), it makes it so the eggplant doesn't absorb so much oil in cooking. I don't know if this works, but will be trying it soon.

Another vote for Asian eggplant -- they're far less bitter than regular eggplant. (I grew the Pingtung and some white finger-shaped mini eggplant that I found in the garden section of a local big-box store.)

I love the texture of eggplant. Among other things, it helps vegetarian dishes by giving them some "heft" and texture. Here are some ways we eat eggplant at our house:

Halved, marinated with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and seasonings of choice, and grilled on the barbecue.

Added to ratatouille -- thinly sliced zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, onion and bell peppers, sauteed/steamed with garlic and tomato. We love, love LOVE this all by itself with parmesan cheese on top; I've used it in soups; I've even drained it and used it on vegetarian pizza.

Added to stir-fries and curries.

Added to chunky spaghetti sauce.

I've not found the skin of Asian eggplant to be bitter. If you're growing other eggplant, I'd recommend peeling them, even though you lose a bit aesthetically and nutrition-wise.

PS: We've made a fairly good lower calorie eggplant parm using breaded, BAKED eggplant slices. (Dipped in egg wash or fat-free evaporated milk and then in Progresso bread crumbs with some parm added.) You'll want to bake them at a fairly high temperature. These are also good in sub sandwiches slathered in marinara sauce and topped with some mozzarella cheese.

I can't comment on okra or eggplant, but I will put in a second vote for fortex pole beans. They're wonderful -- productive, tender, and stringless.