Eggplant has been a much maligned and misunderstood vegetable in my house. Soggy texture, odd flavor; all reasons to have left it well alone for years. But after a series of frankly really great eggplant dishes over the past year, we decided to figure out how we had got off on the wrong foot with this versatile little purple globe.
Our mistake (and other's who had served us their dishes) was to cut the eggplant and immediately put it into service. Eggplant holds a lot of water, even though it seems rather dry on first inspection. Like mushrooms, if you don't get the water out of them, you can't get much flavor into them. You'll also end up with a mushy and soggy texture bomb your mouth won't be thrilled by. Luckily, it's easy to wrest the water from the eggplant's grasp, you just need to apply some chemistry. In our case, just salt. I cut the eggplant into slices, salt both sides liberally and leave it on a cooling rack for about half an hour. Using a towel you can dab away the water droplets that will form on the surface of the slices. After about an hour, you can actually pick them up and wring them out like a sponge (though I would recommend a gentler pressing method if you intend to preserve the slice's shape, like in our case).
Once finished, the eggplant is now ready to take on a variety of flavors and add a pleasant bit of body to any dish you're preparing. In my case, I wanted to recreate an eggplant parmesan sandwich we ran across at a local pub.
Like chicken parmesan, the eggplant will be cut into cutlet-like slabs, prepped as discussed above, then breaded and pan-fried. The breading is accomplished in the same way you would with any cut of meat.
To prepare you breading station, you'll need a dish containing about a cup of AP flour. You'll need one or two eggs, beaten and placed in a dish with tall sides to contain it. Finally, you'll need a dish containing panko or bread crumbs. The trick here is that you're mixing dry with wet, so if you don't use some precautions, you'll ended up with breaded fingers and a big mess. To solve this, devote each hand to a separate task: one for handling dry ingredients, the other for wet.
First, grab an eggplant slice with your dry hand and place it in the flour. Liberally cover all sides of the eggplant with the flour, then lift it out and pat the excess flour off. Now, drop the eggplant into the dish with the beaten eggs. Using your wet hand (for me that's my right hand), dredge the eggplant through the egg to cover it completely. Lift it out and transfer it to the breadcrumbs. I usually drop the eggplant and use my dry hand to cover the top of the slice with breadcrumbs, then flip it over and cover again. Make sure you cover the side walls of the slice as well, not just the tope and bottom. Now just tap off the excess and set aside.
Once you've breaded all your cuts, you're ready to fry them. I do this over medium heat with enough oil to just barely start to come up the side of the eggplant when it's laid flat in the pan. Make sure you're using an oil that can stand up to the heat (read: NOT extra-virgin olive oil). I use a grapeseed oil since it contributes fairly minimally to the taste of the dish.
Once both sides are brown, remove and pat dry.
At this point find some ciabatta bread, some good marinara sauce, parmesan, mozzarella, and provolone. Combine and brown the cheese under a broiler.
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