New Way to Cook Eggplant

SciAggie

I struggle cooking eggplant. I’ve cooked it several ways and was always, meh - at best. While watching Worst Cooks in America last night Alton Brown cooked eggplant “noodles.” They looked good so I tried them tonight. 

Here's the recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/eggplant-pasta-recipe-1911359.amp

Pre seasoned chicken thighs were $1.49 at the store so I frilled them raised direct on the LBGE. I cooked the eggplant on the MM. SWMBO said the eggplant needed to be “saucier” - you know, a simple, “thanks for supper and something new” would have been nice but whatever - I love the woman. 

I thought the eggplant was good - FYI.

Thanks for looking.

loco_engr

Can't say I've ever had eggplant, but if & when I decide to try it, this will be my choice.
Thanks for posting

dbCooper

Interestingly, or not, we made eggplant/tofu curry tonight for a meatless Monday.  No Egg involved, it was on the wok on the stove.  Horrid stuff!

Next time we'll give that recipe a try, looks very tasty.  Thanks for your post!

Eggcelsior

I have a local Neapolitan pizza place that does an eggplant parmigiana. It is excellent, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it myself. 

Mattman3969

Nice cook @SciAggie.  

I’m in the same boat with the “Meh” eggplant.  One way I’ve found to kick it up a bit it slice it into 1/2 rounds, lightly salt for 30 mins then wipe off the moisture(it will be a lot). Lightly oil, season and grill. The last 5 mins of grill add the same amount of oiled thick sliced tomatoes to the grill for a char. Then stack and put crumbled feta on top and let it soften. Once you have the stacks inside hit with a balsamic reduction and some fresh basil.   

Not the prettiest but you’ll see what I mean 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1182128/no-meat-but-still-very-tasty

SciAggie

Mattman3969 said:

Nice cook @SciAggie.  

I’m in the same boat with the “Meh” eggplant.  One way I’ve found to kick it up a bit it slice it into 1/2 rounds, lightly salt for 30 mins then wipe off the moisture(it will be a lot). Lightly oil, season and grill. The last 5 mins of grill add the same amount of oiled thick sliced tomatoes to the grill for a char. Then stack and put crumbled feta on top and let it soften. Once you have the stacks inside hit with a balsamic reduction and some fresh basil.   

Not the prettiest but you’ll see what I mean 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1182128/no-meat-but-still-very-tasty

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I understand about not being the prettiest - my dish wasn't either.

northGAcock

So looking forward to the days we cook together. 

Griffin

Interesting. Never thought about eggplant noodle. I think I've only ever had fried eggplant, eggplant parmesan and the other week Mrs. G made some kinda egglplant parmesan casserole minus the fried part/low carb recipe kinda thing which was actually pretty good.

caliking

Coincidentally, I came across this yesterday and thought about @SciAggie and @Mattman3969 -

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/01/beyond-mala-fuchsia-dunlop-on-sichuans-fish-fragrant-flavor.html

Fuchsia Dunlop is an accomplished cook and author. Loved watching her cook in this vid. I haven't tried this dish at home, but it's one of our favorites.

SciAggie

northGAcock said:

So looking forward to the days we cook together. 

Me too.

SciAggie

caliking said:

Coincidentally, I came across this yesterday and thought about @SciAggie and @Mattman3969 -

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/01/beyond-mala-fuchsia-dunlop-on-sichuans-fish-fragrant-flavor.html

Fuchsia Dunlop is an accomplished cook and author. Loved watching her cook in this vid. I haven't tried this dish at home, but it's one of our favorites.

First - thanks for the link. I will study that in detail as soon as I find my lexicon. You are foremost among the folks that have helped me expand my vocabulary. Of course, that's not saying much about a redneck like me.

Seriously - it sounds delicious.  

saluki2007

Mattman3969 said:

Nice cook @SciAggie.  

I’m in the same boat with the “Meh” eggplant.  One way I’ve found to kick it up a bit it slice it into 1/2 rounds, lightly salt for 30 mins then wipe off the moisture(it will be a lot). Lightly oil, season and grill. The last 5 mins of grill add the same amount of oiled thick sliced tomatoes to the grill for a char. Then stack and put crumbled feta on top and let it soften. Once you have the stacks inside hit with a balsamic reduction and some fresh basil.   

Not the prettiest but you’ll see what I mean 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1182128/no-meat-but-still-very-tasty

I do something similar as well.  The wife enjoys it and I don't mind it either.  I will cut mine length ways and make steaks instead of pucks.

Mattman3969

caliking said:b

Coincidentally, I came across this yesterday and thought about @SciAggie and @Mattman3969 -

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/01/beyond-mala-fuchsia-dunlop-on-sichuans-fish-fragrant-flavor.html

Fuchsia Dunlop is an accomplished cook and author. Loved watching her cook in this vid. I haven't tried this dish at home, but it's one of our favorites.

Thank you for the link.  I will be giving it a try soon.  

Kayak

We spiralize a lot of zucchini, but never thought of using eggplant the same way. I'm not a big fan otherwise. 

JohnInCarolina

My own experience is that when it’s cooked well, eggplant can be great in a dish.  That’s why it’s worth trying a lot of different recipes with it, at least in my book.  And it looks plenty saucy to me man!

SciAggie

JohnInCarolina said:

My own experience is that when it’s cooked well, eggplant can be great in a dish.  That’s why it’s worth trying a lot of different recipes with it, at least in my book.  And it looks plenty saucy to me man!

I agree that it can be good. It just seems that is is easy to mishandle. I've cooked it with too much smoke, had the skin be tough, had it too oily... All pilot error on my part.

I really like the texture it had in this dish. It was was tender and almost silky.

I was just venting about the sauce. I love my wife dearly, but sometimes I could use a little less "feedback." Sometimes just a, "Thanks for dinner." would be nice. I could offer her "feedback" on some of her dishes - nah, I wanna live, ya know?

Legume

Love eggplant.  If you don’t, or haven’t tried it much, try grilling 1/2” thick rounds, I usually season them a little, give them a hard sear and then back-off the heat and let them cook down slowly and caramelize until they show signs of giving up.  Then into a balsamic/evoo bath with basil or whatever else is handy to marinate in the fridge for a little while.  Grilled like this, they suck up the marinade if you toss them in hot.  These are great to spread on grilled crusty bread, add to tomato/cuke/mozz salad, etc.

SciAggie

Legume said:

Love eggplant.  If you don’t, or haven’t tried it much, try grilling 1/2” thick rounds, I usually season them a little, give them a hard sear and then back-off the heat and let them cook down slowly and caramelize until they show signs of giving up.  Then into a balsamic/evoo bath with basil or whatever else is handy to marinate in the fridge for a little while.  Grilled like this, they suck up the marinade if you toss them in hot.  These are great to spread on grilled crusty bread, add to tomato/cuke/mozz salad, etc.

Do you peel it or salt it before grilling?

Legume

I don’t peel in this case, it keeps it all from falling apart and the skin is easily pulled later, or is very edible as well.  I season the eggplant (s&p, maybe quick rub of evoo) but I don’t salt them and let them sit like you would to remove moisture if you were preparing to fry, sauté, etc. where that much water would get in the way of what you’re trying to do.

Legume

Garlic, gotta add garlic to the marinade.