June 23rd, 2011

Today was a day for firsts.  Never have I ever cooked with eggplant before and for some reason this was the week to do so.  Admittedly, I should have read up more on the technique to get it to cook correctly before I jumped into the recipe but I was hungry!  Hind site; never cook when you are very hungry or you'll make too much or do something wrong.  It is kind of like how you should never shop while hungry, expect entirely different.

When I bought the eggplant I did at least look up how to find one that was ripe and I think I succeeded at least in that.  The recipe I found was eggplant parmigiana.  Basically it is just like chicken parmigiana except with eggplant in place of chicken (imagine that).

Some of the ingredients listed were not in my cupboards or I had forgotten to get them at the store, but I made due.  The only things I think I changed were crackers instead of bread crumbs.  After having made them I'm almost sure bread crumbs would have worked better.

The recipe in a nut shell: eggplant, crackers, egg whites, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, pasta sauce, and mozzarella cheese.  The eggplant is put in the egg whites and then dipped into the crackers, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder mix.  Then it is baked, flipping them once.

After they baked on the sheet you lay them in a pan and slather on the pasta sauce and cheese in layers, and then baked it again!  Some how with all this time in the oven I'm pretty sure I still managed to some how under cook them because they seemed far to crunchy and chewy.  Then again I haven't ever cooked them so I'm not really sure how they should taste.

All I can say about it is, I doubt I'll probably make it again.  Definitely not added to my favorites.