Last night I made eggplant parmigian. It came out good except the eggplant was kinda greasy. Before cooking it I put the eggplant in some water with salt for about 10 min. Then I put salt on each slice and sauteed it in olive oil, but the eggplant must have absorbed it while cooking because it was greasy after. My question is, what's a good way to cook eggplant without using breading?

Thanks

You could broil the egg plant. Then you would be able to control the amount of oil because you brush each slice. You could also grill the egg plant.

I made eggplant last night for the first time and it wasn't too bad (I can see how it would be much better breaded, though!). All I did (after slicing, salting, and letting rest) was layer the slices in a casserole dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce (I added Italian spices) and mozzarella then baked it for 30 minutes or so. Not bad. I'll probably try broiling next time.

Tricia

You might try blending down a bag of pork rinds to a real fine powder then dredge the eggplant in it. I am thinking of trying BBQ prok rinds for a little more flavour.

Eggplant soaks up a lot of oil & liquid when cooking (more than its fair share I think) so I prefer to roast it whole, unskinned, in the oven then peel & use. When cool it goes mushy which makes it good for a dip ingredient or to add to other dishes & it keeps well in the fridge. Roasting brings out the flavour & a kind of sweetness which I like. Eggplant loves garlic, tomato, basil, spices, bacon, egg & beef mince - haven't tried it with fish or chicken yet.

Hi all,

Yes, eggplant can be a sponge.

I slice it, salt it heavily, put it in a colander in the sink, put a stainless steel bowl on top, weight it, and let it drain.

You can rince all that salt off when you're through if you want. Then dry the eggplant slices. I find this keeps the eggplant from absorbing all that oil.

i adore the flavour of eggplant and so i never bread it, even when i was not doing induction.

i sautee mine in olive oil and then sort of substitute it for pasta in italian dishes. yum!

also, grab a cookbook with the greek dish 'moussaka' in it - it's a great dish with eggplant, ground beef and a wonderful cheese sauce on top.

i've not tried this but a friend said that after slicing, coat the slices in natural sea salt and leave on a paper towel for 20 minutes. then rinse the salt out. she said it's amazing how much 'junk' the eggplant sweats out!

Athena123, you had the right idea by salting, but what you didn't do as Arrow posted was to PRESS or weight it down to drain. Eggplant is extremely porous. When not first salted and pressed, it drinks up oil like a sponge. With all the water turning to steam inside the eggplant slices, the eggplant dissolves into a soupy, oil-soaked mush by the time it is cooked. Salt draws water out of its cells. Salting alone, however, is not sufficient. The flesh of the eggplant must also be firmly pressed between sheets of paper towels or weighted down to drain; pressing extrudes the juice and compacts the flesh. For the salt to do its job, eggplant must be salted for at least one and one-half hours, preferably for two to three. Because of this, before LCing, I was hesitant to order eggplant parmigian at restaurants because you never knew if you'd end up with greasy eggplant.