Eggplant Parm Caserole

Shovelhandle

Shovelhandle

Well-known member
Weather is shit, just waiting for the RSox game on the tv. :bong2: :beer:
I'm home alone and trying to eat what I find around, for the most part. One eggplant in the crisper. Well, I needed to pick up a few things at the store so I got the rest of the stuff for the eggplant parm, imported parm, mozzarella, can of my favorite sauce (I only made scratch sauce when I can use fresh or frozen garden tomatoes). So now I got this and I'll add some roasted chicken drumsticks and salad for supper.

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do you pre-soak the eggplant? mine always seems to be more bitter than i care for. looks great, yeah...when's lunch!
 
I've grown and used the oriental eggplant. Not what I like for this casserole.

Bitter eggplant is from the mature seeds. if the fruit is too mature it will be more bitter.
Best Sicilian secret for nice textured eggplant is to slice the eggplant and put out on a baking sheet with paper towels to dry. If your in a rush a warm oven will dehydrate ok. Then dust with flower, put in egg mixture for a few seconds to absorb some egg and the dredge in seasoned brad crumbs. Then the slices can be fried or oven fried. Then layered in a casserole with a little marinara, mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake :thumbsup:
 
Sounds tasty Annaba, I love Chinese eggplant in spicy garlic sauce and have a huge Asian grocery down the street.

Any tip to tell the maturity of the fruit?

"Victory shall be mine" -stewie griffin
 
used to make a lot of eggplant parm back in the day. delicious but GREASY. :licklips:

have y'all tried the fairy tale eggplant?

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6440-fairy-tale.aspx
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Used to make a lot of eggplant parm back in the day. delicious but GREASY. Yup, cheese is greasy, no way out of that.
Maturity is tough without slicing it open. A nice eggplant should be firm skin and heavy weight. Too old/mature and they get soft/punky, loose skin and lighter in weight.
I bought the oriental eggplants and some miniature eggplants for the garden by mistake a couple years back. They were ok but for the ways I prepare it the larger eggplant are more suitable. The OL makes a good ratatouille and that might work well for the thin kinds of eggplant. But the OL prefers the italian eggplant too.
 
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I need to go breading-less, I always scrape that off at restaurants. Figure I'll make the slices a bit thicker, maybe try cubes with lots of sauce and cheese. Maybe eggplant lasagne?
 
My mom's recipe used cubes of eggplant. Pretty good. Or you could oven fry the slices on an olive oiled baking sheet for a few minutes each side. I do not recommend 'lots' of sauce and cheese. A small amount of sauce and two cheeses will let you taste to eggplant. It is a delicate flavor and easily overpowered.
The seeds inside the eggplant should be small and white. When they are larger and dark they do get a little bitter. One could then soak the eggplant in milk or salt water. Dry them before cooking.
 
I lightly salt eggplant slices, and put them on a rack over the sink for a couple of hours to draw the water out. Then I rinse them off well, and squeeze more water out before I use it. Doing this keeps my Moussaka, or Eggplant Parmesan from getting that watery shit in it. It doesn't seem to absorb oil as much either. I love it just breaded & fried too.
 
I also like to sweat my eggplant before cooking with it, leaves far less moisture accumulation in the bottom of the pan.

I also skin the rounds, because sometimes those are tough to cut and can really disassemble the dish if you pull on it wrong.

Deee-lish!
 
rounding up the ingredients.

:cheesegrater: :g2: :sunny3: :Tomato::fridge:

a slice of pizza while i wait for the eggplant to arrive :pizza2:
 
never cared to much for eggplant..prefer chicken, pork or zucchini for a parm..
however my wife planted some Thai eggplant from seeds she picked up on our last trip and will give that a try..

your dish looks real yummy Shovel..

damn, I'm down to my last 2 packs of garden frozen tomatoes..had to use a can of imported Italian tomatoes yesterday for a lasagna, not to bad..think it's a sin to add meat to garden tomatoes..best with just garlic, olive oil and basil..
just 2 more months and should be picking the first of my tomatoes..can't wait..
 
rosso reefo said:
I'm down to my last 2 packs of garden frozen tomatoes..had to use a can of imported Italian tomatoes yesterday for a lasagna, not to bad...
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mind sharing what brand? i usually go with the muir glen organic california tomatoes because i find the canned san marzano to be a bit underwhelming.
 
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