Sorry its not a great picture, rather unappetizing actually, but if you could smell it and taste it you wouldn't think as much. Actually, most of my pictures are pretty unappetizing, but thats because I'm hungry and want to eat the food I'd just made rather than photograph it.
This is sort of Alton Brown's recipes from Good Eats, I mean, it started out as his recipe but it becomes more and more of an eggplant stir-fry with Italian flavors the more we make it. I give to you the recipe the way we last made it, but it will probably morph some more next time. As it should. The basic premise is that when you cut the eggplant up and salt it, it oozes out all its water, and then when you cook it, it won't get mushy and slimy. Which is what I really don't like about eggplant, usually. So, what follows is a recipe, sort of, but you are encouraged to make it your own and change things. I think this time I even left out the parmesan, which totally negates the "eggplant parm" thing, doesn't it? Its a flexible recipe...
Eggplant Parmesan
This will make enough for just about three servings, two servings if you're feeding highschool boys and four servings if you're feeding highschool girls. We usually end up with three servings. One for me, one for Ed, and one for lunch.
1 eggplant
1 onion
olive oil for frying
2-5 cloves of garlic (depends on how you like your breath)
1 tomato
1/2C fresh parsley and basil or any other random fresh herbs you might have.
a couple mushrooms
1/4C panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/4-1/2C grated parmesan cheese, or grated mozzarella cheese for a goopier dish (pictured above)
salt and pepper to taste
other vegetables, depending on what you have in your fridge and want to use up or what your mood is telling you
Slice the eggplant into rounds 1/4" thick. Salt each side with kosher salt, or any coarsely-ground salt, and let them sit in a colander for 20-30 minutes. Once they've beaded up with water and there is water that has come out of the colander, you're good to go. Chop your vegetables however you like them chopped, I like my onions and garlic diced finely, everything else in pretty big chunks.
Once your eggplant has sweated, rinse the slices under cold water to rinse off the salt and squeeze them a little between your hands to squeeze out any extra water. If you're wondering why you didn't just squeeze the eggplant first and dispense with the salting, its because of chemistry. 'nuff said. Jess can elaborate. Slice the rounds into long pieces.
Put some olive oil in the pan, sweat the onions until they're a little translucent, add the garlic until its toasty golden. Add everything else except the eggplant, then as the tomato is starting to look not-raw (maybe a minute in), add the eggplant, and toss it around for one minute. Add the salt, pepper, panko, and cheese, toss it about to combine, and serve.
The eggplant is going to be not-mushy, and its going to taste delicious. You can eat it just as a pile o' eggplant, or you can serve it over pasta. Or you could serve it over some other random grain. Or as a side dish. It all works.
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