I had some great fried eggplant at a restaurant 40 years ago and have never come close to duplicating it. Now, I need to restrict carbs and cut way way down on grease. What about something with chicken, cheese, pasta sauce, etc? Or baked faux fried?

* I consider advice here superior to dredging it up via Google for many reasons.

Best way to eat egg plant is not. Read stories by Glen Cook detective named Garret says there 160 plants that humans eat pigs eat 159. That is my opinion on eggplant.

First off, for flavor the Japanese or Indian eggplants are vastly superior to the shorter, fatter versions found in grocery store produce departments.

You could always try ratatouille. Here's what looks like a decent basic recipe: [allrecipes.com]

You can also make a very chunky basic marinara sauce, then add thick sliced eggplant and/or zucchini and cook on the stove top until the eggplant/zucchini is tender and serve it as you would regular marinara, either over pasta, with grilled chicken, or both, or even on it's own as a side dish.

If you're firing up the grill anyway, it couldn't hurt to throw a few slices of eggplant on there along with the meat.

For frying, you have to do eggplant really fast in really hot oil because nothing soaks up grease like eggplant if given even half a chance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2012 01:14AM by Thrift Store Scott.

Japanese eggplant plus grilling on the BBQ is our solution.

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I'm not sure what sort they are, but the ones we get down here are delicious.

I throw them straight on the BBQ grill with a very, very light coating of olive oil painted on with a pastry brush.

You could skip the oil if you have to avoid it.

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"You can also make a very chunky basic marinara sauce, then add thick sliced eggplant and/or zucchini and cook on the stove top until the eggplant/zucchini is tender and serve it as you would regular marinara, either over pasta, with grilled chicken, or both, or even on it's own as a side dish."

This is what I'll do first, but leave out the pasta for lower carbs.

Here's what I do with them--
dice into medium-small cubes; mince a few cloves of garlic, sautee in olive oil, add in eggplant, add oil as needed as the eggplant will soak up all the oil quickly . . .

oh, wait, never mind.

There is nothing like growing your own and using immediately, being sure to harvest before they get too spongy. The younger the better. Just two plants will keep you in more than you can use.

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Markintosh
Japanese eggplant plus grilling on the BBQ is our solution.

Same here. Grill them a couple minutes or so on each side, they'll get some nice stripes on them and turn soft. Take them off the grill and run them briefly under cold water to peel. Slice in half, maybe cut into smaller pieces. Then, we put on something called dashi shoyu in Japan. Dashi is fish soup stock that is often used in Japanese cooking and shoyu is soy sauce. You can get it together in a bottle. Plus, add fresh grated ginger. We also add katsuo bushi, which are dried/smoked fish flakes that are often used in Japanese cooking. Delicious.

Grilled and drizzled w/ balsamic vinegar that's been cooked down w/ Craisins (dried cranberry) is my favorite simple recipe.

Also, here's a killer pasta sauce (there go the carbs): Cube to 3/4", salt and press the eggplant for about an hour to remove as much water as possible. Rinse off the salt, saute the eggplant cubes w/ garlic and 1/4 lb. shredded prosciutto in a big pot (1/2 lb makes it sinful), deglaze w/ 1/3 cup of brandy, add 1 can of beef stock/broth and 1 large can of whole tomatoes, crushed w/ your hands as added. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Salt (not much because of the prosciutto) and pepper to taste. Serve over linguini.

As above. Grilled w/ a little balsamic vinaigrette. The Asian ones are tastier, tenderer and less seedy.

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you must have some sort of fat because otherwise you have to mash it to a paste (and even then a little oil is added). if no oil, it would probably taste like dry plaster. it needs something else.

conversely, if you do use no oil and grill them, you can add them to a ratatouille or caponata for a very tasty cold spread on @#$%& or toast. that's my summertime meal when I make a big batch using my garden bounty.

Here's what I did and it was really good:

Sauteed bacon until crisp and then added onions. Layered eggplant cut fairly thin with a stiff cheese grater. Added cheddar and mozzarella. Then added another layer of eggplant. Then I added a can of petite diced tomatoes and some Alfredo sauce and Italian seasoning. I topped it with slices of chicken breast and baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I topped it with a handful of spinach and some Parmesan cheese and broiled it for a few minutes.

It was surprisingly good, looked great, and was very low carb. I'll try something similar with zucchini in a few days.

The eggplant soaked up the sauces and was a nice consistency. However, I don't know how company would take it.

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Dennis S
Here's what I did and it was really good:

Sauteed bacon until crisp and then added onions. Layered eggplant cut fairly thin with a stiff cheese grater. Added cheddar and mozzarella. Then added another layer of eggplant. Then I added a can of petite diced tomatoes and some Alfredo sauce and Italian seasoning. I topped it with slices of chicken breast and baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I topped it with a handful of spinach and some Parmesan cheese and broiled it for a few minutes.

It was surprisingly good, looked great, and was very low carb. I'll try something similar with zucchini in a few days.

The eggplant soaked up the sauces and was a nice consistency. However, I don't know how company would take it.

I'd be all over this.

"I'll try something similar with zucchini in a few days."




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