s/o recipes - eggplant?

DG1

Anyone have a good one?  There was a GIANT eggplant at the grocery store that I just had to buy because it was GIANT! 

And now we have to eat a giant eggplant.  

The only recipe I have is for eggplant-stuffed peppers, which is good, but that'll only use about 1/4 of this eggplant.

Butter Cookie

I saw a recipe recently which basically was a layout of stuffed eggplant. Or you could make eggplant parmesan if you were so inclined.

Mom's Stuffed Eggplant

Recipe courtesy Michael Chiarello

Prep Time:
    10 min
Inactive Prep Time:
    --
Cook Time:
    1 hr 5 min

Level:
    Easy

Serves:
    4 servings

Ingredients

    * 1 large eggplant
    * 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
    * 1/2 pound ground beef
    * Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    * 1 onion, small diced
    * 1 red pepper, small diced
    * 3 cloves garlic, minced
    * 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley leaves
    * 1/2 cup freshly chopped basil leaves, chopped
    * 1 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano, divided
    * 1/4 cup bread crumbs
    * 1 egg
    * 2 chopped tomatoes

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the center, leaving enough meat inside the skin so that it holds its shape when baked. Boil the scooped-out center part until very soft, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saute pan heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Add the seasoned ground beef to the pan and saute until all of its liquid is evaporated and the beef begins to brown slightly. Drain the beef, removing the extra, unnecessary fat. Let cool briefly and chop the cooked beef so that there are no large chunks of meat. In another medium saute pan over medium heat add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and saute the onions, peppers and garlic together.

In a bowl mix together the cooked eggplant, vegetables, cooked beef, herbs, 1 cup of the cheese, bread crumbs, and the egg.

Fill the scooped-out eggplant halves with this mixture, dividing it evenly among the 2 halves.

Top with chopped tomatoes and the remaining 1/4 cup of grated cheese, season with salt and pepper, place on an oiled oven tray or baking dish, and bake for 50 minutes in preheated oven. Let cool briefly, slice widthwise and serve.

loveshine1

Eggplant parmesan?

MinM

eggplant parm.

All I know is you have to be careful because if you don't do something or other it tastes really bad <- this is what happens when you learned cooking by osmosis - only certain stuff sinks in, which isn't helpful.

You might ask BMom because I remember her asking about eggplant recipes because Bacon wanted to try it.

Heffalump

Eggplant parmesan was also going to be my suggestion, because I realized that's the only thing I've ever made with eggplant.

Min, are you thinking of salting it as the required step?  I've read that you need to salt it first, though I have no idea why. 

(My dad has always hated eggplant, so we never ate it when I was growing up.  Thus, no creative eggplant ideas here.)

Butter Cookie

With eggplant when you slice it you need to salt both sides, let it sit for 15 minutes (it will sweat) and then rinse off and pat dry. This will make sure your eggplant isn't mushy.

DG1

hmm. interesting. I never would have known/thought about the salting.  THANKS, WW!

PMeg819

Yes definitely salt them. Also, you can use instead of noodles in a cheese lasagna.

MinM

Something like that and Alton Brown has a whole thing about eggplants that H watched (online) when he wanted to make babaganoush (I KNOW I slaughtered that word). You may try googling that to see if you can find something helpful.