Eggplant Parmasean

[niemela23]

Hi to all!

Am going to try making Eggplant Parm' for dinner tonight for my boyfriend, his father, and myself. I've never made the dish and have never cooked with eggplant, but have seen it done on TV many times and have heard from many that the stuff is delicious. I checked out a few recipes and it looks pretty straight forward, some assembly required.

Just curious if anyone has any tips, tricks, or words of wisdom to pass along my way regarding the creation of this classic dish. If so, I'd enjoy reading anything posted. Have you made a really good version of it, or, lol.... a bad one? Anything I should know in order to achieve great success or avoid great failure?

Thanks, fellow CookingBites members!

-J

 

[winterybella]

@niemela23, welcome to the forum. It's approaching 7pm where I live and I trust you are well along with the recipe. I tip my hat to you for trying a new recipe with the in law over. I hope he is as impressed as I am. I have never made it myself, but it seems easy enough and you shouldn't go wrong unless you are a terrible cook.

It's late for tips but the only one I would give where guest are involved is to have a back up plan for something that can be prepared in 15mins. Still I think this is going to be fine and would have been a great recipe for the the Cooking Bites Challenge. https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/the-cookingbites-recipe-challenge.6160/page-4#post-41905. Do let us know how things turned out and I am guessing fine.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I suspect I'm too late to be able to give any tips, but the one I would give is that if you have never cooked eggplant (or aubergine as it is known here in the UK), is that it absorbs oil better than blotting paper! So don't worry about the pan going dry when you cook it, it is going to no matter how much oil you put in. Eventually the aubergine will start to release some of that oil and cooking liquid.

Oh and modern varieties do not need salting and draining the way the older varieties did, so for countries like the UK, Canada, USA and so on, you don't need to do this with shop bought aubergine, unless of course you have bought a heritage variety.

 

[L_B]

So I am curios as it how it went? Was it a success? How did you end of cooking it?

 

[niemela23]

Salted it and let it dry out a bit before assembling things. &, Wow, didn't know that, regarding the 'modern varieties'.... you learn something everyday! Thank you. 'Aubergine', too. Sounds so much more appetizing than 'Eggplant'. Lol.

Sliced it thin, breaded it, and then layered it all... my homemade tomato sauce, the parm', popped her in the oven. It went pretty well. The eggplant cooked through perfectly, and I turned a die-hard Carnivore in to an Omnivore. Hah!


-J

 

[niemela23]

Salted it and let it dry out a bit before assembling things. &, Wow, didn't know that, regarding the 'modern varieties'.... you learn something everyday! Thank you. 'Aubergine', too. Sounds so much more appetizing than 'Eggplant'. Lol.

Sliced it thin, breaded it, and then layered it all... my homemade tomato sauce, the parm', popped her in the oven. It went pretty well. The eggplant cooked through perfectly, and I turned a die-hard Carnivore in to an Omnivore. Hah!


-J

Just like my roasted butternut squash soup. He couldn't believe there was no meat (pureed) in the bowl. Lol.

 

[Diane Lane]

I suspect I'm too late to be able to give any tips, but the one I would give is that if you have never cooked eggplant (or aubergine as it is known here in the UK), is that it absorbs oil better than blotting paper! So don't worry about the pan going dry when you cook it, it is going to no matter how much oil you put in. Eventually the aubergine will start to release some of that oil and cooking liquid.

Oh and modern varieties do not need salting and draining the way the older varieties did, so for countries like the UK, Canada, USA and so on, you don't need to do this with shop bought aubergine, unless of course you have bought a heritage variety.

I've cooked a bit of eggplant in my time, but didn't realize until yesterday quite how much oil it soaks up. I was brushing on a bit of oil before grilling the slices, and it really did soak it right up. I'm low on olive oil, or I might not have noticed how absorbent it is. I usually fry the slices, and figured the absorbing effect was due to the breading, and thought it was the flame of the charcoal grill when I cooked it that way. I was being lazy and didn't salt and drain this eggplant, so I'm glad to read @SatNavSaysStraightOn's post about that not being necessary.

 

[Morning Glory]

I've cooked a bit of eggplant in my time, but didn't realize until yesterday quite how much oil it soaks up. I was brushing on a bit of oil before grilling the slices, and it really did soak it right up. I'm low on olive oil, or I might not have noticed how absorbent it is. I usually fry the slices, and figured the absorbing effect was due to the breading, and thought it was the flame of the charcoal grill when I cooked it that way. I was being lazy and didn't salt and drain this eggplant, so I'm glad to read @SatNavSaysStraightOn's post about that not being necessary.

The way I get around the oil absorbing issue (I really don't like to pile unnecessary calories into my aubergine dishes) is to slice them and roast or grill (broil in US) the slices with a mere brushing of oil. The slices soften in 15 minutes or so and char slightly which helps bring out their slightly smokey flavour. Then just use them as required. You can also cook chunks of aubergine without any oil but with a little water in the microwave and then use in recipes.