Eggplant was never a favourite of mine until I came to Bulgaria. I would, therefore, be a bad writer if I neglected this strange vegetable that I have grown to like.

When I was a child, I never enjoyed the eggplant that my mother and grandmother used to make. They always made Fried Eggplant or Eggplant Parmesan, and I refused to eat this. Luckily, we had 10 dogs in my house, and they always wanted to eat my eggplant. Needless to say, the dogs loved me.

I was a very finicky eater, but I have learned, over time, to appreciate many foods, even eggplant. Fried Eggplant is an excellent dish with some tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Hmm... this may be similar to Eggplant Parmesan. And then there's Eggplant Istanbul, which is such a delicious meal that I made it three times last fall because I enjoyed it so much.

Here's another scrumptious eggplant dish - if you have last week's Zucchini Stew recipe, substitute 1kg of eggplant for the zucchini and you get Eggplant Stew. This was a pleasant surprise I discovered while experimenting last fall.

One tip for cooking eggplant is to get rid of its often bitter taste. The trick to this is to cut the eggplant first, sprinkle it with salt, and then rinse the salt off after 10 minutes. The following recipes have been expat and canine tested and approved, but have not been tried by Bulgarians.

Fried Eggplant with Tomato Sauce

1 large eggplant, 5 large tomatoes, 1/2 cup or 100g flour, 2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped, 3 large spoonfuls of olive oil, or sunflower oil, Parmesan cheese, Basil, pepper, garlic powder, cumin.

Directions - Eggplant: Peel and slice eggplant into circular pieces, not too thick. Mix flour along with spices into a bowl, small tray, or plastic bag. Place eggplant slices into a bag. Take eggplant slices, and make sure they are fully covered in flour mixture. Add oil to large frying pan and set stovetop to medium-high heat. Place slices into pan and fry both sides for a total of five minutes, or until eggplant is golden brown on both sides. Place on plate or in large dish. Pour tomato sauce generously over cooked eggplant, sprinkling Parmesan on top. This can be served with pasta.

Tomato Sauce: Cut tomatoes into medium pieces, then puree with hand-held mixer until tomatoes liquefy. Fry garlic in saucepan with 1 tablespoon olive oil for 2-3 minutes, then add tomatoes. Heat should be at medium-high. Add oregano, basil, and pepper to flavour. Bring the sauce to a boil, and then simmer at lowest heat setting for about 30 minutes.

Eggplant Istanbul (from the Peace Corps cookbook)

1/2 cup or 100ml oil, 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed, 1 onion, chopped, 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed, 2 tomatoes, chopped, 1 cup tomato paste, Juice of 1 lemon, Salt

Directions: Combine oil, eggplant, and onion in a medium-sized saucepan and cook on medium to high heat for 10 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, and lemon juice. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. This can be served with white rice.

Joseph Herr is a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer currently working in Balchik. His column appears weekly and he can be contacted at jdherr75@sabreshockey.com.