The benefits of eggplant are huge - they contain magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, which contribute to the normalization of metabolism and blood pressure, the release of excess fluid from the body. They help to stop smoking, because they contain the optimal amount of nicotine, and also remove bile and improve intestinal motility.
All these useful properties make them incredibly valuable, especially since dishes from them are always very tasty. But how to pamper yourself in the winter? How to store eggplants after harvesting? After all, in addition to canned eggplants, you sometimes want to cook something from fresh vegetables.
How best to store eggplant?
First of all, it is necessary to take a responsible approach to choosing the right specimens for long-term storage. The best place is the ripened eggplant with the peduncle and without any damage. Their rind should be dense enough and not to break when you press it with your fingernail.
When asked whether it is possible to store eggplants in the refrigerator, the answer is that keeping them in this way does not guarantee long-term preservation of the fruit. In the fridge, the blue ones will soon lose their moisture and become sluggish in about a month. And then, provided that you know how to store eggplants in the refrigerator, that is, put them in a tray and covered with dark burlap.
Eggplants are best preserved when the air temperature is up to +6 ºС, and humidity - up to 85%. And this should be a dark place, because in the light in the fruit is produced a harmful substance - solanine. Such a place can be a cellar or a cellar.
How to store eggplants for the winter in the cellar?
Before sending the eggplant for the winter, they need to be wiped dry with a dry cloth, packed individually in paper and folded into boxes in one layer. You can do several layers, but you need to shift each sacking.
After 10 days, the box must be removed and the vegetables re-sorted, removing the spoiled ones. Eggplants left whole, re-wrap and cover with sacking. If the cellar is colder than usual, you can additionally cover the boxes with straw.
How else can you store eggplants for the winter?
Another way is to hang the eggplant. Vegetables are placed in separate grids and suspended from the ceiling. In this case, the room should be well ventilated, so that the blue does not turn sour and do not rot. The temperature should be about 0 degrees.
Storage of chopped eggplant in the freezer is also allowed, only the taste qualities of thawed vegetables are not quite what they were. Because many of them are pre-boiled in salted water, and only then cleaned in the freezer.