Saturday, January 10, 2009

Eggplant Gratin

Eggplant gratin or eggplant parmigiana is one of X's favorite side dish. So much so when aubergines are in season, I would make platters of this & freeze. We like to eat this hot or cold.

I made this once with white aubergines but I didn't fancy them too much. White aubergines just don't have the same flavor.

Before frying the eggplant, egoutter or drain away the water. This is how you do it. Clean, cut off the stems & then slice thinly lengthwise. Next make criss cross marks ensuring you don't cut through.

Then sprinkle generously with salt & leave in colander for at least half an hour. You'll see big drops of water appear on the eggplant extracted by the salt through osmosis. Although it might seem like a lot of salt, I don't rinse them, I just make sure I don't add any more salt to the dish.

Once that's done, you're ready to fry the eggplants. The tricky thing is that they absorb a lot of oil so have tons of kitchen towels on stand by to soak up as much oil as possible.

Then line them in an oven dish. Layer the eggplant, pour tomato coulis / tomato sauce, then sprinkle grated cheese (I used parmesan in this case). Repeat with the rest of the eggplant.

Bake in the oven at 190C for 30-40 mins until the top is golden brown.

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