Eggplant

This morning I was making gaji namul, which is Korean side dish made from eggplant. I've made it before, and really liked it, which surprised me because eggplant is... kind of gross. It has a tendency to turn to slime when you cook it, the skin is bitter, cut eggplant turns brown when exposed to air, and one time I undercooked some eggplant when making baba ganoush and it made my mouth itch.

Anyway, to make gaji namul, you need to steam the eggplant for 15 minutes. I put the eggplant in a pot and let it steam on the stove while I took a shower. After I got out of the shower, the eggplant was done and I took it out of the steamer. To my great surprise, the water in the pot had turned BRIGHT GREEN.


Isn't that amazing? The color was even more vivid in person. I told some of my coworkers about what happened, and one woman told me that usually the water turns purple, but occasionally it will turn bright green. So I guess it's normal. I have a feeling it was some sort of chemical reaction with the aluminum pot that I used. Last time I made it, I used a smaller enamled pot, and it definitely did not turn that color. The end.

PS. Thanks to Maangchi for her great gaji namul recipe: Gaji Namul