Eggplant / Aubergine

Welcome to my first general ingredient post! I'm going to assume you all have a rudimentary knowledge as to what an eggplant or aubergine is, that big purple thing basically. Or at least the western kind that you find where I live, is. We don't get all those fancy other kinds, so I'm not going to discuss those.

How to preserve my luscious eggplant?
Keep it preferably in a dark, cool place, like where you keep your tomatoes. It doesn't really like to be kept in a fridge, nor in a hot place, though in my experience the veggie box of your fridge is still better than my hot dorm room.

For how long?
At least a week, but it's pretty much useable until you get brown, mushy spots. Wrinkles aren't the end of the world, see below. 

Oh No! I forgot my Eggplant and now it's all wrinkly!
I'm not the best at meal planning, so sometimes I just buy produce with the idea that I'll figure out later what I'll do with it. In this process some things get forgotten and sometimes even spoil, which I hate! Since I don't like wasting, nor do I really have the money to waste with my student budget. :p
Once upon a time I had an eggplant which was a bit old and wrinkly and I was afraid it wouldn't be useable any more and I almost wept! But I did some research on the interwebs and it seemed to suggest that while a few wrinkles can slightly affect the taste (make it more bitter), it shouldn't make you sick. Eggplant is already slightly bitter, especially the skin, and especially the dark purple western kind (which is the only kind you can get here), though it's been slightly bred out so it's lesser than it used to be. In the past eggplant was always salted (see below) to get some of that bitterness out, so if your eggplant is a bit older you might consider doing that. Check out my eggplant pizza recipe for a perfect excuse to use that wrinkly eggplant! Now that being said, yes of course fresh eggplant is probably better for you and most would agree tastier, since it's sweeter.

Salting? Wtf is that? I'm hungry! I don't want to wait 30-45min on top of cooking time!
Salting is basically slicing your eggplant, covering it in salt on both sides, putting it on some paper towel and letting it soak up some of those supposedly bitter juices. Apparently eggplant used to be a lot bitterer than it is now, because of the seeds. But because of selective growing they've greatly reduced the amount and size of these bitter seeds, so usually I think you can skip the salting step. But if your eggplant is a bit older than you would like, and you fear that it has turned bitter, salting might salvage it. Also some recipes salt your eggplant to dry out the plant a bit, for various reasons, so don't automatically skip it if you see that step, just think about it. If you see no reason for a drier eggplant and yours is spanky fresh, then go ahead and skip it. Courgette/Zucchini is also salted sometimes for what I assume is the same reason, but not sure. ;) 

Skin it?
No! Or at least I think so. It's a waste, more work, and also tasty, so why would you? The skin is generally more bitter than the rest of the plant. Sometimes though your eggplant's skin can become very tough while exposed to a lot of heat for a long time (like when you grill it whole to make babaganouche) and then you might want to throw away the skin. 

Soaky soaky
Eggplants tend to soak up oil especially, and liquids in general in your dishes, which you might want to keep in mind while cooking as well! Though a bit of olive oil on your eggplant has never met any protest in my experience.

Used in
Mini Eggplant Pizza - Carbless Sin
Ratatouille (with chicken and couscous)

Source: https://davidrosengarten.com/blog/the-many-mysteries-of-eggplant/