February 11, 2008 | Filed under: good eatin'
I love food. I love eating. I love cooking. I hate eggplant.
While in Istanbul I discovered something extraordinary: I love eggplant.
I’ve been testing several different eggplant recipes over the last couple of weeks and last night realized that I had forgotten the most obvious one, eggplant parmagiana. I love chicken parmagiana, so I figured I’d love the eggplant version, too.
But it just didn’t seem like enough; just eggplant tomato sauce and cheese? That’s it? Seemed sort of boring. Seemed like there wasn’t enough food in that food. I wanted to add another layer, but what? I have to admit that ‘chicken’ came to mind.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. What’s that other vegetable that’s fabulous breaded and fried? Oh, yes.
Talk about obvious.
SOUTHERN FRIED PARM
1 medium sized eggplant, partially peeled in wide stripes, sliced 1/2″ thick
1 big green tomato sliced the same size as the eggplant
2 or 3 eggs well mixed in a bowl
flour with a little black pepper
bread crumbs + crushed Pepperidge Farm Stuffing + some parmesan cheese, too
oil for frying (or, a cookie sheet for baking if you’re not into frying, which is crazy, by the way)
the tomato sauce of your choice. I used a whole large jar of Classico Caramelized Onion & Roasted Garlic flavored sauce
more parmesan cheese — grate it fresh if you’ve got it
mozz
1. sprinkle eggplant slices very lightly with salt and set in a colander for 15 minutes.
2. to spare yourself more dirty dishes and, roll down the sides of a clean plastic grocery bag till it lays reasonably flat. Put the flour on the left and the breadcrumb mixture on the right. I like panko, but it really doesn’t hold up to all that time under sauce in the oven. I use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs mixed with some stuffing mix for extra crunch. The cheese is a bonus. Flour both sides of the slices, shake ‘em, then dip in egg, let the excess drip off, then dip it in the crumbs. Set aside on waxed paper or a rack. This process takes longer than you think. Mid-way through, heat up your frying oil.
3. Repeat with the tomato slices.
4. Test the oil with a small eggy bread crumb ball. If it sizzles in a lively happy way, then fry your eggplant slices in batches, followed by your tomato slices, about 3 minutes on a side for each. Don’t crowd them or the temperature of your oil will drop too far. Set slices aside on a rack as you go (NOT a paper towel! It’ll get all greasy, soggy and steamed!). Halfway through the frying, pre-heat your oven to 400F.
4. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a glass baking dish big enough to hold all the slices. I used a 3″ deep round one. Add a layer of eggplant, a sprinkle of parm and then a more sauce. Top with a layer of fried tomato, parm and sauce etc, till you end up with one last layer of eggplant. Top with remaining sauce and top THAT with shredded mozz. Use good mozz, if you can. I used lame generic shredded 2% mozz, which was fine, but the dish would have really benefited from decent cheese.
5. Bake till cheese is bubbly and lightly browned.
6. Let stand a couple of minutes, then serve with pasta tossed lightly with olive oil, or rice, or orzo, or whatever you want!
Serves 2 with seconds and leftovers for lunch, or four with no seconds and no leftovers.
February 11, 2008
@ 11:57 pm
That is just sinful. Sign me up.
February 12, 2008
@ 12:46 am
pork roll egg and cheese. wow. old school ween when they huffed glue and made magic.
i love your videos about food. It inspires Ryanne and to try new things. I cooked up some catfish tonight with mushrooms and brussel sprouts (a vegetable we dont eat enough of).
February 12, 2008
@ 4:19 am
Yummy I love that dish I will try it later this week - with extra extra cheese and you know Vik is intolerant to cow cheese so we have to find the goat or sheep variety! very exciting.
February 18, 2008
@ 4:38 pm
Hey-Have you tried frying in rice bran cooking oil-man I am a fry king now. Who says frying isn’t good for you.
April 6, 2008
@ 4:16 pm
I was so retarded when I first tried to peel an eggplant.. I didn’t realize the seeds went all the way through. They are good in certain dishes but I don’t like them plain.