Hope everybody celebrated Halloween; we didn’t go out for trick or treat, however treated those who came. When my little princess is ready to for trick or treat we will take her, maybe she is two or three years old. We love eggplant, and usually I make eggplant curry or stir fry or add it as an ingredient in sambar. This time for a change my hubby asked can you make eggplant parmesan/ Eggplant Parmigiana, I told him; okay I will try and finally made some baked eggplant parmesan. Olive garden is one of Italian restaurant we visit; usually during our wedding anniversary (you can call it our anniversary restaurant). We like their salad and bread sticks. Usually I will order eggplant parmesan or mushroom ravioli as my main dishes. Hubby goes for chicken parmesan or any other chicken dish. When I was thinking of making eggplant parmesan; I was dreaming about eggplant parmesan that I had tasted at Olive garden.
I got the recipe of baked eggplant Parmesan from this you tube video. I added some cumin powder, gram masala, black pepper along bread crumbs to make spicy eggplant parmesan. Earlier I made lasagna with this baked eggplant parmesan that had come out really good. My hubby gave me thumps up for this recipe. We love eggplant in any form. While watching Alton brown’s Good eats show I learned that in eggplant also male and female fruit. Who care male or female fruit, our job is to eat them. Why worry unnecessarily.
Even though eggplant parmesan/parmigiana is a simple casserole dish, certain steps should be necessary to get full taste, such as draining the juice from eggplant to remove its bitterness. There several ways you can prepare this dish, one method consists of sliced eggplant pan fried in oil, layered with tomato sauce and cheese, and baked in an oven. In another version, the eggplant slices are first dipped in beaten eggs and dredged in flour or breadcrumbs before frying. Some recipes use hard grated cheeses such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano, while others use softer melting cheeses like Mozzarella or Caciocavallo, or a combination of these. I used the second version with parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.
If you want to make it more authentic parmesan dish you can fry the eggplant and make your own tomato sauce. I used my Ragu garden vegetable combination as tomato sauce. They are the tomato sauce available in my pantry. Since it is not dredged in oil, it has fewer calories than the fried version. However, there the cheese part is there, I reduced the amount of cheese too. If you want cheesier try to add more cheese as you wish. Even though making of eggplant Parmesan is time taking procedure, it’s worth the effort. Baked eggplant slices are so good that even, my hubby and little one start munching them. I got another idea for converting them into some snack later. I served with some lemon rice vermicelli. I have some rice vermicelli that is waiting to used up so I gave them a chance to be on my dinner table. They tasted great on the first day, second day onwards they looks like they are from dessert: with no water content, just dried ones. Try eggplant parmesan it won’t fail you. Here is the recipe
What you need
Eggplant: 1 big
Olive oil: 3 tablespoon
Black pepper: ½ teaspoon
Egg: 1 no
Gram masala: 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
Bread crumbs: 1 cup
Ragu sauce: 1 cup
Mozzarella: ½ cup
Fontina. Parmesan cheese blend: 2 tablespoon
Water: 3 tablespoon
Salt: 2 teaspoon
For Rice vermicelli
Rice vermicelli: 2cup
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Ginger: 1 inch
Roasted peanut: 2 tablespoon
Olive oil: 2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
Red chilies: 2 no ( halved into 2 pieces)
Urad dal: 1 tablespoon
Chana dal: 1 tablespoon
Salt: ½ tablespoon
Lemon juice: ½ of one lemon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon.
How I made
Spicy eggplant Parmesan
Wash and peel the skin of eggplant and cut into ¼ inch rounds. Sprinkle salt on both sides of egg plant rounds and set aside in colander for 30 minutes. Squeeze out excess juice from the eggplant and wash them in running water and set aside. Wipe eggplant rounds with kitchen towel to remove excess moisture.
In mean time in a small bowl beat egg with water and set aside. In a plate mix bread crumbs, black pepper, cumin powder, gram masala and set aside.
Preheat oven to 375F. Line the baking sheet with non-stick foil and grease them with 1 tablespoon oil.
Dip the eggplant round into egg and then into bread crumbs. Coat the eggplant round entirely with bread crumbs and arrange well coated egg plant rounds into the greased baking sheet.
Finally sprinkle rest of oil on the top of each round and bake them for 30 minutes on each side or until they become golden brown color.
In a baking dish spread the bottom with 2 tablespoon of tomato sauce. Then line the baked breaded egg plant rounds and spread with tomato sauce and add cheese. Then repeat with breaded egg plant rounds-tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and Fontina, parmesan/Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese blend. Cover them with aluminum foil and baked for 20 minutes and then remove the cover and bake another 5 minutes or until cheese gets bubbly.
Enjoy with rice vermicelli, pasta and so on.
Preparation time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 6 serving
Verdict: Delicious
Will you make it again: Yes I will
Lemon rice vermicelli
Soak chana dal in ¼ cup water for 30 minutes. Drain and microwave them for 1 minutes and set aside (This step is optional; I don’t like to bite hard chana dal).
Soak rice vermicelli in hot water for 3 minutes before cooking.
In a sauce pot heat 5 cup of water, once it starts boiling add salt and soaked rice vermicelli and cook them for 3 minutes and drain them in colander and set aside.
In a skillet heat oil and add mustard seeds , urad dal, red chili pepper, chana dal and curry leaves. When mustard seeds starts popping add turmeric, chopped ginger and peanut fry them for 2 minutes. To this add cooked rice vermicelli and mix everything and add lemon juice and switch off the flame.
Enjoy with any curry or eggplant Parmesan.
Preparation time: 8 minutes (if you are using soaked chana dal + 30 minutes)
Yield: 5 serving
Verdict: good on first day
Will you make again: I will if needed.
Spicy eggplant Parmesan is going to 12 days of Bloggie mass; tenth day hosted by amoderatelife
Swathi
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Butterpoweredbike says
I love that you put your own twist on the eggplant parm. But I'm extra excited to see your noodle recipe. I'm never sure what to do with rice noodles. Thanks for sharing with the Hearth and Soul hop.
jayarajmurukkumpuzha says
othiri nannayi chaithittundu..... aashamsakal.......
Jaisy James says
wow looks superb n i need a piece also
Yummy Team says
WOW!! Both the dishes look gorgeous!! Thans for sharing Swathi..
simply.food says
Very innovative and tasty looking dish.
Panchpakwan says
Both the dishes looks amazingly delicious...
Magia da Inês says
♥♥ Olá, amiga!
Passei para ver seu blog... amei!
Suas receitas estão cada vez mais criativas e sofisticadas.
Boa semana!♥
Beijinhos.
♥♥ Itabira
Brasil ♥♥
✿ܓܓ✿Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿ܓܓ✿
sanjeeta kk says
Love the silken smoothy vermicelli recipe.
Sreelekha Sumesh says
Lovely recipes.Lemon rice vermicelli vecha pathram enikishtapettu 🙂
Reeni says
Eggplant parmesan is one of my favorites! This turned out really good - looks delicious! And your lemon rice too.
Rachana says
Both the recipes look good. A delicious treat 🙂
Dimah says
what a great recipe! it sounds and looks delicious!
Dimah
http://orangeblossomwater.net
G.Pavani says
new n sounds interesting..looking yummy
Ameya says
Both dishes look scrumptious-I especially like the twist of adding garam masala and cumin to eggplant parmesan!!
aipi says
I like the one they have in olive garden as well !!
Looks perfect..love the vermicelli too..surely a treat!
US Masala
Usha says
Both of these look so inviting and delicious !
Sushma Mallya says
loved both, it looks so yummy
Pushpa says
Eggplant parmigiana is a fav of mine,I love the way you made it,looks so tempting and delicious,Awesome lemon vermicelli too...
Pushpa @ simplehomefood.com
PALATABLE says
Both look so yummy, love your pictorial method, so easy to follow...
http://treatntrick.blogspot.com
Faith says
Everything looks really wonderful, Swathi! Eggplant is one of my favorite veggies and now I'm definitely feeling inspired to make eggplant parm! 🙂
sinfullyspicy says
Both the dishes look soo yummy..Love eggplants any way and vermicelli is an absolute fav.