Oily aubergine

Why it drinks oil

Raw aubergine flesh is a foam — a network of cells with a great deal of air trapped between them. When it hits hot oil, the air escapes and oil is drawn in to replace it.

As the aubergine cooks further the cell structure collapses and the flesh becomes dense, and some of that oil is squeezed back out. But a good deal stays, which is why fried aubergine can be superb and why it can also be inedible.

The trick, whichever method you use, is to collapse the air pockets before the oil gets to them.

The three ways to stop it

• Roast or grill it instead of frying. Brushed lightly with oil and roasted hot, aubergine browns and softens without a bath. The simplest answer.
• Microwave it first. Two or three minutes collapses the structure. It then fries beautifully with a fraction of the oil, and this is the least glamorous and most effective trick there is.
• Salt it and press it. Salting draws out water and partly collapses the cells. Rinse and dry thoroughly afterwards.
• Fry in genuinely hot oil, which sets the surface before it can absorb much. Lukewarm oil is what gets drunk.
• Do not add more oil when the pan looks dry. It will look dry and it will not be — the aubergine gives it back as it collapses. Wait.
• Cut it larger. More surface area means more absorption; thick slices and big chunks absorb proportionally less.

Does salting work, and for what

For bitterness

Largely obsolete. Modern varieties are bred without the bitterness salting was meant to remove.

For oil absorption

Yes, genuinely. Salting draws water out and collapses some of the air pockets, so less oil goes in.

For texture

Yes. Salted aubergine holds together better and is less spongy.

How long

Thirty minutes to an hour in a colander, then rinsed and pressed dry between cloths.

If you skip it

Roast rather than fry, or microwave first. Both work at least as well.

The microwave method, in full

Unappealing and extremely effective.

1. Cut the aubergine into the pieces you want — slices, cubes or halves.
2. Spread them on a plate and microwave on high for two to four minutes depending on quantity, until the flesh has visibly softened and darkened slightly.
3. They will look unpromising. This is fine.
4. Blot away any liquid.
5. Fry, roast or grill as normal, with far less oil than you would have needed. The pieces brown quickly because they are already partly cooked.
6. Season at the end.

Common questions