Some foods that begin with the letter "E" include eggs, escarole, eels and eggplant. Others are elderberries, Emmental cheese, endive, English muffins and Epoisses cheese.
Belgian endive, the best-known type of endive, is a member of the chicory family. To give it its pale color, farmers often grow it in a cold, dark storage area after it has been grown in the field. Endive can be bitter, so it's best to blanch it for a minute or eat it raw in salads rather than cook it for a long time.
Eggplant can be plump and black or glossy purple or thin and purple. A member of the nightshade family, it also can be white and egg-shaped or round and green with darker green stripes. Many cooks salt the plumper kinds of eggplants before cooking to remove some of the bitterness and sweat out some of the moisture. Some cooks leave the skin on the fruit because it contributes to the flavor and keeps the eggplant from disintegrating if it's to be stuffed.
Elderberries ripen around the same time as blackberries, and the two can be mixed in jams and jellies. The berries are high in vitamin C, and the shrub is easy to grow.
