- They are also known as eggplants (at least they are here in the western U.S).
- They are the feature ingredient of Eggplant Parmigiana, which I don't think I'd ever had.
- Michael Franks sang a song about a woman who cooks eggplants. I bought his album The Art of Tea before I married Dr. van der Stevejinck.
I found a recipe by Jamie Oliver online - it looked good, but I was unable to grill eggplant slices today, so I ended up using a different recipe in an old Betty Crocker cookbook and combining it (a little) with the Jamie Oliver recipe.
Here's my version:
Stuffed Eggplant Parmigiana
2 smallish eggplants
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
1/2 cup diced onion
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 can of diced tomatoes (15 oz.)
1 small can tomato paste
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon crushed oregano
a couple of leaves of fresh basil, chopped
around 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
around 1/2 a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Italian style breadcrumbs
- Heat oven to 350'.
- Brown sausage, onion and garlic in saucepan, drain thoroughly. While sausage mixture is browning, cut the two eggplants in half and scoop out most of the pulp (I left about 1/2 an inch), dice.
- Combine in saucepan: sausage mixture, tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, oregano, salt. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add diced eggplant and fresh basil, cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.
- Place eggplant 'shells' in a baking pan (I used a 9x13). Fill shells half full with sausage/tomato mixture, sprinkle with mozzarella. Heap remaining mixture on top and sprinkle with more mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.
- Bake, uncovered for about 30 minutes. Makes 4 servings.
Verdict: Dr. van der Stevejinck loved it. He had two servings for dinner and took a third serving for his lunch today. I liked it okay...but found the tomato sauce a little overpowering (Jamie Oliver suggests fresh in-season tomatoes...that sounds more to my liking). Fifteen year-old - wouldn't even try - way too much 'produce section' for him.
We love eggplant. Especially eggplant parm!
ReplyDeleteYour recipe looks delicious. I have another version of stuffed eggplant parm that has a creamy, cheesey mixture in the center. Either way, this dish SCREAMS calories! :)
We also just slice the eggplants, in either direction, depending on how we plan to cook them, and do a flour, egg wash, bread- or cracker-crumb crust with various Italian seasonings and Parmesan cheese. We either bake them on a cookie sheet which we've sprayed or coated with olive oil, or we deep fry them. (My beloved got a deep fryer two Christmases ago and he's crazy about it!" The round version - from cutting cross-wise - stands up to the deep fryer best. The oblongs (from end to end) are better baked.
We eat them like that as a snack or even as a side dish. And of course, we turn them into Parm, too.
To me, "aubergine," is only a color. I have to stop and consider which veggie it must be if they are called aubergines.
:)
me<><
Betty Debbie--
ReplyDeleteToo bad your son didn't the Eggplant dish--more for you and Dr van der Stevejinck! I am surprised though, because your recipe is basically pizza toppings on a veg! What almost-16 year old turns down pizza-flavored anything??!?!
Betty Cindy--I'm with you in trying to translate English veggie names into American. Alligator pears had me stumped for a while--oh! Avocados! And Zucchini has a funny Brit name too, which has slipped my mind.
Betty Barbara
@Betty Barbara -- zucchini is sometimes "courgette" in Britspeak....
ReplyDeleteYep, and a bigger version (squash) would be marrow.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience I've learned peanuts called monkey nuts over there. And we all know the cookies being "biscuits" thing. That still pops me out of the books. The idea of eating biscuits at 4 o'clock with tea? My My. I wonder what Brits here think when they see Biscuits and gravy on a menu. ;-)
Here's a few more:
sausage is "bangers."
ham is "gammom",
sardines are "pilchard",
potato chips are "crisps."
American dessert is "afters."
And what Americans call molasses is "treacle," so treacle tart is really little molasses pies? Yikes! I'm imagining Pecan pie without the pecans. Oh dear. Now I'm sure that should go below the Cheese Board. Or is it above. You know what I mean. It should be a lower number.
Betty Debbie, great recipe and photos. You should go in the food photo taking biz!
ReplyDeleteI've made this in my big family days. I've never sliced it lenth-wise. That would be cool. However it would be futile with just Betty Megan home. I could use Betty Barbara's idea of pizza on a veg, but the only thing Betty Megan likes on pizza is pineapple and cheese. Umm, not liking that with Eggplant.
The Professor would eat it, but he's on a Lose 40 pounds mission, so I'd have to lighten the recipe - Which will take all the fun out - Maybe after Lent starts. As food ceases to be fun in the Vue der Plane house during Lent.
Here's my (relatively) low-fat eggplant parm:
ReplyDelete1.5 pounds eggplant (get two small ones; they'll be less bitter)
1 pound part-skim mozzarella cheese
2-3 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated
4 slices white or whole wheat bread
1 jar spaghetti sauce (ironically Three Cheese is low in fat)
Preheat oven to 400 deg. Slice eggplant into circles 1/2 inch (roughly) thick. Oil a rimmed cookie sheet with olive oil and spread the eggplant disks out on the oil; sprinkle them liberally with salt. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn them over, sprinkle with a little more salt & bake for another 10 minutes.
Reset oven to 350 deg.
Meanwhile, whir the bread in a food processor to make fresh bread crumbs and add grated Parmesan cheese .
Cut the mozzarella into 1/2 cubes; separate into two equal piles.
Construct the casserole as follows:
Spread a small amount of sauce on the bottom of a lidded casserole. Place a single layer of eggplant slices next, followed by a generous layer of bread crumbs and grated cheese (you'll be using 1/3 of the eggplant and 1/3 of the crumbs for each layer). Spoon on 1/2 cup sauce, and spread it around as best you can. (Doesn't need to be perfect.)
Sprinkle 1/4 of your mozzarella cubes on top -- they won't cover, just make them roughly evenly spaced. Add another layer of eggplant, cheesy bread crumbs, sauce, 1/4 of the mozzarella cubes. Your final layers will be the rest of the eggplant, bread crumbs, the rest of the sauce (which should be nearly half the jar -- this you do want to cover the crumbs) and finally the remaining half of the mozzarella cubes.
Bake it covered for 30 minutes at 350 deg. and another 20-30 uncovered. Serves 4.
Actually, I've only seen peanuts referred to as "ground nuts" in the UK, leading to the funny name for peanut butter: ground ground nuts.
ReplyDeleteBetty Ross's family came last August to visit. I had his sister-in-law Bryony (a great Betty name!) and nephew Jack in my car driving from Newark Airport back to our house. They decided to stop for a snack, and when Jack ordered a sandwich, they asked him if he wanted chips with that. Of course we know what he got, but he had been expecting French fries! I couldn't believe it -- I thought that was the very first bit of translation one did from Britspeak to American English!
By the way, a "chip butty" is a sandwich made up of thinly sliced white bread, some butter and "chips" -- meaning the steak-fries one gets with a fish-and-chips meal. Yup: two forms of starch and two forms of fat. So yummy. So unhealthy...
My experience with the monkey nut was back in the 70's so I looked it up to make sure I remembered it right.
ReplyDeleteAnd here someone using it in the present, so I guess they use both. Ground groundnuts I love it!
We usually send Betty Brigid home with as many jars of JIF as she can sneak in her luggage w/o going over the weight limit. Prof Barry loves the stuff and nothing they get in Ireland is the same, they say.
a "chip butty" ... Yup: two forms of starch and two forms of fat
ReplyDeleteThat sound like Betty Megan's favorite meal to order out. Alfredo Noodles, garlic bread, with a side of hash browns. We tease her with, would you like a some mash potatoes and mac-n-cheese with that. 8-D
Betty Magdalen, I was just reading a review of Atonement that a BXing friend released(she got a great catch on it!) Anyway, a child character in the book's name was Briony, and I couldn't figure out how to pronounce that in my head. How do you say Bryony?
ReplyDeleteI've got the same problem with the name Rhys. These name pop me right out of the book. Do you get as distracted as I do when you are reading and you hit a name like Gijs? (Which may rhyme with Rhys for all I know!)
Gross. Eggplant is on my short list of I will not eat it Sam-I-am.
ReplyDeleteRhys is Welsh and pronounced Reece
ReplyDeleteGijs is (I assume -- someone may know) Guys or Guyce
Bryony & Briony is BRY-oh-nee
Gijs is like Guyce with a guttural "g" in front.
ReplyDeleteI just had a good laugh looking at the "recent comments" section. It bounces from alopecia to aubergine. I think today is being sponsored by the letter "A".
ReplyDeleteIt looks absolutely delicious! I need to just buckle down and figure out how make it myself.
ReplyDeleteMy baby (8!) is Reece -- for his Welsh great-grandfather, Rhys. My husband liked the name Rhys but not the spelling. Reece was our compromise. On my shortlist of favorite books is Atonement. It's weird because I'm not otherwise a big McEwan fan, tried several of his other books and didn't finish any.
ReplyDeleteBetty Magdalen. So it's Bry - rhymes with Try, like in Brian OR Bry sounds like Brie, the cheese.
ReplyDeleteALHC, I like Rhys too. I tried to convince my sister to go with Reece for a nickname for her son Maurice, but she went with Mo. Her choice, but the former sounds like a classier guy. ;-)
I started liking Reese with Hal Holbrook's character in Designing Women.
ReplyDeleteIs Bryony a Welsh name too? My youngest granddaughter's name is Brynn. My son wanted another Celtic name for #3. It is, but it's Welsh not Irish, and means hill.
BRY as in try. But I daresay someone out there answers to BREE-oh-nee.
ReplyDeleteBetty Henry says "monkey nut" is usually used when the peanuts are still in the shell. I'd not heard of that term, so color me ignorant!
Bryony is the heroine's name in Mary Stewart's Touch Not the Cat, yes?
ReplyDelete