Continuing down our nerd road, Laura and I are big fans of Alton Brown. Earlier today I broke out his book I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 to try and find something new to make and settled on Eggplant Parmesan. The preparation of this dish was ridiculously easy and fun to do. We don't break out the cast iron skillet as much as I would like, so getting to pan fry some goodies is always a welcome treat.The recipe calls for panko rather than traditional bread crumbs and I think that made all of the difference. The panko gave it a lighter and crispier crust than the others would have. One substitution we had to make was to use a pre-shredded mix of cheeses because the store did not have provolone except for sandwich slices. We had some left over spaghetti sauce in the fridge and went with that rather than just plain tomato sauce.
For a side dish we decided on some asparagus and just used a steamer bag from the frozen section of the grocery store (don't knock it, it is actually pretty dang good stuff). I made my first ever reduction sauce with balsamic vinegar which turned out pretty nice, though we went a little heavy handed on it when we put it on the veggies. Otherwise the dinner was a big 'ol win and I plan on making it again soon. Plus, it is a pretty cheap meal that doesn't take long to prepare. WE give it 5 out of 5 stars. But enough of the words, here are the pictures.
knives are fun
workspace
resting while their friends get fried
just a touch of sauce between each layer
"suck it Iron Chef"
Laura likes plating and wanted me to say that
This looks oh so YUMMY! Makes me want to go home and make this too! Pictures are great! Question for you -- did you have any trouble with the eggplant being a little soggy? I found a trick when making eggplant parm...and that's to slice the eggplant, lay them flat on paper towels so that the papertowel can absorb the mositure in the eggplant (I sprinkle a little salt) and then wait like 5-10 minutes or so before I do the breading process. I'll have to try panko instead of breadcrumbs next time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! Love it! Mouth is drooling.
We did salt and press the eggplant and that definitely helped. The panko also makes for a crispy breading. I think moving the eggplant directly from the frying pan to a cooling rack helps because it allows the grease to drip away from the crust.
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