Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplants come in different shapes and varieties. They are super versatile depends how you cook them, they can give off a meatiness for vegetarian dish, and is often used as a meat replacement. Eggplants have lots of fiber, potassium, and vitamin B6. One year I tried to grow eggplants as container plants, and they were adorable.

I like eggplant Parmesan because it's packed with flavors. It's actually one of my 2 favorite ways to make eggplant. When cooked incorrectly, eggplants can be a bit bitter and flavorless - and nobody likes that. So the trick is to heavily spice the vegetable. The eggplant parm dish took me about an hour, half of the time the dish would be in the oven baking so active time is half. Not too shabby.

Recipe:
- Wash and slice 1 medium sized eggplant into equal thickness slices. soak in water with a bit of salt for a few minutes. This process apparently takes the bitterness out, but I just find this makes the eggplant not go brown/oxidize so fast.
- In a separate bowl, 5 tbsp of flour, 1 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp of salt, dash of pepper, 1 tsp of oregano, and 1/4 cup of water - I like my batter thin, so the coating wouldn't be too heavy of the eggplant
- Med heat with a pan of oil and fry the eggplant slices. Until golden. They eggplants can be a bit under-cooked because we are going to finish them off in the oven.
- Lay the fried eggplants in baking dish (I recommend glass dish to contain the sauces)
- Pour tomato sauce on top. I was lucky enough to have some my MIL's home make tomato sauce - so it was extra good this time! Otherwise, a can of diced tomato can work well too.
- Put shredded cheese on top. I had cheddar and Parmesan, about 1/4 cup of each. You can put as much or as little as you wish. the more the cheesier, so go nuts!
- 400F, bake for 20-30 min until the cheese bubbles. the last 2 min you can broil the dish so brown the cheese, even better.
- Let it cool for 5 min before serving. It's piping hot, try to not burn your pallet! (I made this mistake too many times, and ouch!)

I typically would serve this with a salad, or something bland but refreshing on the side. This is a very rich dish, so you want something to cut the grease a bit. This time I had some beets so I had that on boil/simmer during the time I was making the eggplants and they were ready to go on the plate. The beets were a bit sweet, and had a clean, earthiness to them. Great contrast to the eggplant dish.

Ta-da! My final product looked mouth watering. And yes yes I know red on red is not contrast enough, does not give off the best picture effect, blah blah, but flavor-wise was impeccable. No joke. Next time you buy eggplants, give this recipe a chance.