RECIPE - Spicy Stuffed Gilo (Jiló com Pimenta)

The African-born and Brazil-raised bitter vegetable gilo (jiló in Portuguese) like its close relative the eggplant is an extraordinarily adaptable and versatile food. It can be cooked in almost any way - boiled, baked, steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, stewed. It just can't be eaten raw. Like eggplant, there is a natural bitterness to jiló. For aficionados of this egg-shaped fruit, the bitterness is part of the attraction. For those who are less keen on it (or even more so for those who detest it) the bitterness is what drives them away.

This recipe highlights the flavor of jiló, but by adding other strong flavors, like bacon, onion, and garlic, and by spicing it up with the heat of the dedo de moça pepper, that flavor is tempered and doesn't dominate on the palate as it does in a less-complex presentation of jiló. I discovered the recipe online on the website of the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Dia, in the blog-column of food critic Pedro Landim. The translation and adaptation are mine, and the photos accompanied the original blog posting.

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RECIPE - Spicy Stuffed Gilo (Jiló com Pimenta) 

5 gilos (jiló)
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp. small cubes of bacon
4 Tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 small chili pepper (dedo de moça, serrano, jalapeno), seeded and minced
home made or well-made commercial tomato sauce
grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
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Preheat oven to 425F (220C).

Wash the gilos, then cut off the top (stem) end and the bottom of each, creating a cylinder shape. Using a sharp paring knife, cut around the central pulp of the gilo, and extract the pulp, leaving round cylinders. Reserve. Finely chop the pulp that was removed and reserve.

In a small frying pan, cook the bacon cubes until crispy, then drain on paper towels. Drain any bacon fat remaining in the pan, but do not wash it. In the same pan, fry the onion and garlic until soft and transparent but not browned in a bit of olive oil. Add the gilo, the bacon and pepper and continue to cook until the gilo is soft and tender.

Stuff the gilo cylinders with the mixture from the frying pan. Place them open end up in a small baking dish. Top each with a small amount of tomato sauce, then sprinkle parmesan cheese over.

Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve immediately as a vegetable or side dish.

INGREDIENTS - Gilo (Jiló)

These small, green, egg-shaped cousins of the tomato and the eggplant (all members of the Solanaceae family) are a common sight in the markets and supermarkets of Brazil. In English it's known variously as Gilo, Scarlet Eggplant, and in West Africa where it originated, it's often called "garden egg." In Portuguese, they're called jiló. As with so many other foods, it was carried to the New World by slaves being transported to the sugar cane plantations and the gold mines of Brazil.

Whenever I've seen jiló in the market, it's always been a brilliant kelly green, and I assumed that was the mature color of this fruit - it is a fruit, although it's used culinarily as a vegetable, just like it's Solanaceae cousin, the tomato. It turns out, however, as I discovered while researching this piece for Flavors of Brazil, that when mature the jiló is red or yellow. The jiló that is sold commercially is unripe, and thus green. Apparently, Brazilian consumers will not accept a red or yellow jiló, and so by the time these colors appear, jiló has no commercial value.

Its immaturity might explain the primary flavor characteristic of the jiló - bitterness. If you have a taste for bitter food or drink - let's say you LOVE Campari - you're likely to enjoy jiló on the first try. If you don't, it's likely to be an acquired taste, or perhaps a taste you'll never grow to like.

Jiló is particularly associated with the cuisine of the interior Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and with the traditional foods of descendants of slaves from that region. There is a very large number of Brazilians from Minas Gerais (mineiros) living in the state of Massachusetts, and according the the University of Massachusetts Agriculture Department, jiló can be, and is, grown successfully in Massachusetts. It seems that it can be grown in any region where eggplant cultivation is possible. Seeds are available online from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Jiló can be cooked in any number of ways - stir-fried, oven roasted, gratinéed, a la parmigiana, etc. etc. It can even be made into very nice chips. I'll add some recipes for jiló shortly.