Pot of eggplant and honey
(Baonghean) - During the hard times, in my hometown, every house had two jars of eggplant and pickled mustard greens placed in the corner of the yard. Families in the countryside may lack many things, but they never lacked jars of eggplant. I don't know which "ancestor" came up with this very common dish, but it must have been the people's experience in using salt to preserve and store food.
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| Illustration: Internet |
December - the month of taro - is also the time when the pickled cucumber jar is almost empty, and the eggplant jar is only half full. During the lean season, the cold and hunger penetrate the thin blanket, making sleep fitful. At that time, I only wished to have a full meal of rice with my grandmother's stir-fried pickled eggplant. I don't know why my grandmother's stir-fried pickled eggplant dish is so delicious.
Well, around March and April, like many families in the small village along the Ca River, my grandmother started picking eggplants to prepare for pickling. My grandparents had a reclaimed garden of about 2 sao dedicated to growing vegetables. That garden was located on a piece of land that the villagers called Ve hoang. The garden was surrounded by thick bamboo. When the season came, my grandmother and my aunt often planted eggplants and coconut eggplants on that land. The eggplants were pure white, while the coconut eggplants were as big as a rice bowl and green like young bamboo leaves.
Usually, during harvest time, only my grandmother picked the eggplants, because she said that everyone else had to do more heavy farming work, and that she alone was “in charge” of the eggplant garden. That said, there were still several hundred kilograms of eggplants, which was no small matter. However, my grandmother said that eggplants were not harvested all at once like corn or rice. Each day, they ripened a little, and were picked every few days. Since there were so many eggplants, my grandmother even took some to the market to sell. Then my aunts and uncles all came to “ask” for my eggplants to take home to eat and pickle.
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| Stir-fried pickled eggplant. Photo: Internet |
Around April, when the sun started to get hotter, it was also the time when my grandmother picked the eggplants from the garden and brought them out to dry in the shade of the trees. Before that, my grandmother had carefully peeled off the stems of each plant. Sometimes my siblings and I joined her and intentionally left the eggplant stems that had been stripped of their green outer skin. My grandmother usually dried the eggplants for 2-3 days. On days when the sun was too hot, she spread the eggplants on a large tray and dried them right on the porch. My grandmother said that drying the eggplants would help them last longer when pickled and would be crispier when eaten.
On the day of salting eggplants, Grandma would definitely call her neighbor Duc to help carry the large jar that had been cleaned and dried beforehand to the corner of the yard. The galangal, garlic, and corn bran… had all been prepared by Grandma at some point. A layer of salt, a layer of eggplants - a whole basket of white salt was put into the jar by Grandma. Even though she hadn’t eaten it yet, she knew it was incredibly salty. After all the ingredients were neatly arranged in the jar according to her “intention”, Grandma used a bamboo woven tray to place it on top, and on top of the tray, she placed a very large pebble to press it down tightly. Finally, a round lid made of wooden panels was placed on top of the jar. It was fine on a sunny day, but if it rained, Grandma used a plastic sheet to cover the jar of eggplants.
My grandmother's jar of eggplants can be taken out to eat after only about a week. And during the following days and months, the jar of pickled eggplants is still supplemented if there are newly picked eggplants. Pickled eggplants are part of the life of the countryside almost all year round, but they become extremely important in winter, when the crops are scarce. At this time, the eggplants have turned pale from being soaked in salt. To increase the flavor of the dish, my grandmother sometimes makes stir-fried salted eggplants. She meticulously cuts each eggplant in half and then washes it. The salted fat is put in a pan to fry with purple garlic, when the aroma rises, it is time to add the pickled eggplants. In addition to being seasoned with a little MSG, a spoonful of sugar, her stir-fried eggplants also have chili powder, pepper and most importantly, shredded lemon leaves. Oh my, when the weather is cold, sitting in the kitchen with a flickering fire, eating a bowl of hot rice with stir-fried salted eggplants feels like enjoying delicacies. An extremely simple dish but somehow so delicious and savory.
Life is strange. When we have enough food and clothing, people often reminisce and crave the feeling of the old days. Me too. Every December, I remember my grandmother's jar of eggplant. Just thinking about it makes me feel like the salty taste still lingers on my lips.