Baked eggplant cutlets

Monday, September 10, 2007

Eggplant was a foreign thing in my household growing up.  They were certainly available, but my mother had no idea what to do with one.  In fact, she still doesn’t - last Summer she called and asked how to make eggplant parmesan for my vegetarian cousin.  My people just don’t know from eggplant, I guess.  And while I like eggplant and do know how to prepare a mean eggplant parm, my experience with eggplant is still so limited my first instinct is always to go with what I know when faced with eggplant.

It should come as no surprise that the eggplants that came in my CSA share last week are on their way to becoming eggplant parm.

Well, sort of.  Who wants eggplant parm when it’s 90 degrees outside?  Not me.  So the eggplants are now hibernating in my chest freezer, made into baked and breaded eggplant cutlets.  So they’re halfway to eggplant parm.  I imagine that one day this Winter I will want to hug myself for thinking to have locally-grown, organic eggplant cutlets put up.

Making breaded eggplant cutlets is a breeze, but you do need to plan ahead a little.  Eggplant has a way better texture for cutlets if you salt and press the slices before breading and baking.  So slice up the eggplants about a 1/2 inch thick.  Put down a plate covered by a paper towel and put down a single layer of eggplant slices.  Sprinkle salt on the eggplant slices (I like to use sea salt for this).  Put down another layer of paper towel on top and another single layer of eggplant and salt.  Repeat until you run out of eggplant and end with a paper towel.  Now put another plate on top of that and weigh it down with something.  You don’t want to use anything too awful heavy, but something that’ll weigh down the top plate a little.  The salt will draw the water out of the eggplant and the paper towel sops up some of the extra water.  Just walk away for about an hour.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

OK, whisk and egg or two with a bit of water blended in.  Put out a plate of bread crumbs.  Depending on how much salt you used, you might want to brush some of the salt off your eggplant cutlet prior to dipping it in the egg.  And after you dip the eggplant in egg, coat the cutlet in bread crumbs.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for five minutes.  Flip the cutlets and bake another five minutes.

Let them cool, layer them on wax paper, and freeze in a freezer bag.  There you go: baked eggplant cutlets for a snowy day.