I looked at the recipes here and here. I liked the idea of breadcrumbs in the first one, plus I still had some from leftover garlic bread I crushed a while back. From the second one, I liked the addition of cheese and a herb. So I put the two ideas together and made up my own recipe.
Eggplant, also known as aubergine! They have such lovely colours. I had 3 of them but for this dish I used 1½. They were big, I didn’t want to cook them all in case I messed up!
Additional ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
Breadcrumbs
5 tomatoes, sliced
Parmesan cheese, grated
Handfull of fresh basil
Olive oil
Salt
Slice the eggplant across into discs, remove the skin, rinse through some water and lay them on a plate or tray. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on both sides.
My mother told me that they can be bitter. Letting them sit for a while with that sprinkle of salt helps to remove/neutralise the bitterness. But if you like the bitterness then you can skip this (some people do!).
In the mean time you can prepare the other stuff. I had placed water on the stove for cooking the rice, it was now boiling so I added salt, cooking oil and the rice.
We will coat the eggplant with breadcrumbs first, fry it a little, then layer it with the tomatoes cheese and basil, then bake it!
So prepare the assembly line!
First, beat the egg with the milk and place some in a small bowl for dipping. Next to it place another small bowl with the breadcrumbs.
Next is the frying pan with some oil.
Then the sliced tomatoes and grated cheese
The oven dish for baking, coated with cooking oil
and fresh basil, washed and ready.
Coat the baking dish with oil evenly, on the bottom and on the sides. Then put down a layer of the sliced tomatoes, covering as much was possible.
While the eggplant is baking you can finish up the rice. It should be cooked already. Take it off the fire. This will be a very simple fried rice. I’m not even sure it’s really fried rice, but I know it’s tasty (^_^)
How much onions and cardamon you use depends on how much rice you cooked, and how strong you want the flavour. I used 2 onions and 1/3 cup of rice
Husband Rating:
very nice colours, appetizing, or maybe I was just hungry
the eggplant was good
your posts and recipes are just amazing. i have tried some of them and i guess am already a good cook. cant wait to prepare the eggplant…thank you!
Thanks Joy!
And thank you for trying them too! (^_^)