We have a lot of eggplants coming in from the garden right now. I have two ways that I prepare eggplant and am contemplating a third. I fry the slices or I make my own version of eggplant parmesan (which also involves frying the eggplant ahead of time.) Either way I prep the sliced eggplant first by sprinkling sea salt over the slices and letting them sweat for an hour two. I learned that from Molly, an Italian woman who used to watch my boys when they were very young and we were living in California.
To coat the eggplant for frying I use a mixture of breadcrumbs, flour, cornmeal and parmesan cheese, with a teaspoon of baking powder. (Does anyone but me use baking powder in their dry fry mix?) To make eggplant parmesan I layer the fried eggplant slices with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and either turkey bacon or turkey breakfast sausage. If I have leftover rice or noodles or couscous I put it in the bottom of the baking dish with some tomato sauce. Finish with a layer of cheese and tomato sauce on top and YUM.
The third option that I am thinking about is making baba ganoush, so if anyone has a good recipe for that please share. Any more ideas? I even dehydrated eggplant slices one year, which worked fine, but they were kind of rubbery when I rehydrated them.
