An Amazing Eggplant Parmesan – Meal

Eggplant Parmesan definitely hit the spot. Here’s the story…

Great ideas for meals can come from simple people. My friend and neighbour Sharina made an amazing meal with eggplant. Always around to partake when we’re cooking and developing recipes, she felt that she had to cook something for us. And being a vegetarian she brought something from her kitchen that her husband and children absolutely love.

After one taste of this eggplant dish, I just had to beg her for the recipe, so I can make it myself. She was such a wonderful person, she was willing to share her recipe with me, well knowing that I might just share it with my readers.

Another Version of Eggplant Parmesan

This eggplant recipe is her version of an eggplant parmesan with a little twist of trini style cooking. In her version, she doesn’t use cheese at all, but I felt that adding the cheese would bring in a little wow factor into the dish. So If you like, you could leave out the cheese altogether and tell me what you think.

Eggplant, also known as baigan or melongene or aubergine, belongs to the nightshade (Solanaceae) family of vegetables, which includes tomatoes and sweet pepper. It has a spongy texture and a slight bitter taste. For this reason, most people are not fond of eggplant.

However, I have two great reasons you should eat eggplant. First, eggplant is considered the most nutritious vegetable, rich in phytonutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals. It contains phytonutrients that can protect cell membranes from damage or mutating into cancer cells, it can improve blood circulation, and it can protect against type 2 diabetes and digestive system irrregularity.

Secondly, it is easy to prepare. Most eggplants can be eaten with or without the skin. If you wish to reduce the bitter taste in eggplant, you can sweat the eggplant by salting it. You cut the eggplant in desired shape, sprinkle it with salt and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes. Wash to remove most of the salt.

The Eggplant Parmesan Trinistyle

This is a simple and intriguing recipe. This recipe calls for you to first fry the eggplant in a little batter and then bake it.  You will have a bit of chopping and frying to do.  So don’t despair, have patience and soon you will have a dish worth sharing.   Now you may wonder how this was done Trini style…You see we didn’t have much Parmesan cheese and mozzarella was no where in sight so we had to substitute with our good ole cheddar cheese that so much trinis swear by… Some even go as far as to call it trini cheese….from New Zealand lol.  Here is Eggplant Parmesan with a simple trini twist, enjoy!

 EGGPLANT PARMESAN TRINI STYLE

4 small young eggplant, peeled and sliced longitudinally
3 large sweet peppers, sliced
3 medium onion, sliced
1 cup tomato paste
1 cup ketchup
2 cups Parmesan cheese  or  Cheddar cheese

Green Seasoning

4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
10 leaves chadon beni
2 leaves big leaf thyme
1/2 sprig celery
1 sprig parsley, chopped or 1 tsp dried
1 chive, chopped
1 tbsp minced hot pepper
2 pimento peppers, chopped
salt to taste
1 cup water

Batter
1 egg
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 cups flour
1 tsp complete seasoning
3/4 cup of the green seasoning mixture

Direction:

Chop the ingredients for the green seasoning.   Pour the cup of water in a blender and and add handfuls of the ingredients.  Blend until fine.  Remove and strain.  Place the green water into the blender and add the balance of ingredients.  Mix and set aside.

Chop the sweet pepper, set aside.

Peel and slice the eggplant longitudinally.  Place in a bowl and sprinkle salt.
Set aside for about 10 minutes.

Beat the egg…

…place in a deep bowl and add 3/4 cups of the green seasoning.

Then add the rest of the ingredients for the batter.

Whisk.

Dip the eggplant slices in the batter…

…then fry until golden.

 Note: Because of how thin the eggplant slices are you only need to fry them for 30 seconds on both sides.

Drain and set aside to cool.

In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup seasonings, tomato paste and tomato ketchup. Mix well.

In a  8 x 12 x 2″ baking dish, spread some of the tomato sauce.

Add the first layer of eggplant…

sliced onions…

sweet pepper…

some dollops of  tomato sauce and cheese .

Repeat the step until all ingredients are used up. Top with tomato sauce.

Bake at 350° F oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve cool and enjoy!

Delicious!

 

This eggplant parmesan was absolutely magical; it disappeared into thin air, lol 🙂

Ah gone!