How to Make Eggplant Parmesan

How to Make Eggplant Parmesan Host: Welcome to Hoffmankitchen. Today, we’re going to make we’re going to eggplant parmesan. I'm in the mood for an Italian dinner or it could be just vegetarian or just a nice dish for a side dish. So, we’re going to start with wonderful eggplants. I washed them already and dried them. So, what I’m going to do, cut off the ends of the eggplant. Sometimes it’s hard to cut, so you got to use the tip of the knife. I'm going to make vertical slices, about a quarter of an inch slice or so but before I do that, I’m going to peal just the outer edge of the eggplant just to get the skin off and I’m going to cut about half inch slices. Again, using the tip of the knife, just make an incision. So there you have it and the last piece again what I will do, I will just cut off the skin here, so again using the tip of the knife. Okay, so this is too thin and I’ll cut this off as well. Now what I’m going to do is I have two eggplants, so I'm going to cut two eggplants and what I’m going to do is I’m going to salt the eggplant. I'm using kosher salt and I’m using this rack that I put into a flat dish or any dish you can use and I'm just going to salt the eggplant on both sides. So I’ve cut the second eggplant and I salted it again with kosher salt. So I'm going to let it stand for about an hour and let the salt get the water out of the eggplant but just squeeze it out, I'll just t this little aluminum foil here and I’ll put two tomato cans just on top. So I'll will squeeze the water out of this and let it sit for an hour. Female: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Host: In the skillet I have put in two tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying and I’m going to take my eggplant. Make sure the oil is hot. You can feel it's hot. You can see it sizzling when you touch the frying pan. And you put in your eggplant hence the size, how many you can fit in two or three depending on the size. We’re going to quickly fry on both sides. And alright and here it’s nice and brown and what we’re going to do is we’re going to transfer it on a paper towel, so we can drain all the oil out of it. And now we’re going to do the next batch until they're all done. So we fried our eggplant. It looks so delicious. I can eat them just like that. They looked delightful. The towel is absorbing all the oil. We’re going to use this dish. You should use a dish that you can serve right on the table so it should be a nice dish. This not as nice but this is just the right size for that eggplant that I have cut. So, the first step to make our eggplant parmesan is we’re going to use crushed tomatoes about three to four cups, we’re going to use some fresh mozzarella cheese thinly sliced just as I did it so you have a nice mozzarella sliced, a little bit of a parmigiano and reggiano mixed grated cheese and I have some shredded mozzarella as well. So, we’ll be just layering, doing just nice layers. So the first thing I’ll do, I’ll just pour some tomato sauce or I would say the crushed tomatoes, add a little more. Generous amount to cover the bottom and you could just shake it up. Okay. And on top of this, we’re going to layer our eggplant which is the nice slices. Just fit them in nicely and like that. The next step, again, pour some tomato sauce on top. We’re going to layer our mozzarella cheese just layer slices, looks just like that. We’re going to do some of our grated parmigiano and just spread around nicely. There is about cup and a half to two cups of the grated cheese and some a little more of the grated mozzarella. You don’t have to do it. I just had some extra so I figured I’ll use it. And now we’re ready for our next round again, pour more tomato sauce on top. Now I’m going to do the second layer on the top, just spread it out nicely. I have some odd shapes here left, so I'll just put them on, add the little pieces I cut. So, I’ll just add them on here. And again, put more mozzarella, not as much as the first layer perhaps, just the six slices. And we’re going to pour some tomato sauce on top. Again, the parmigiano on top as well. And we’re going to put this in the oven. And now, we’re going to put our eggplant parmesan in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. It should be bubbly when it's ready to come out. A half an hour has passed, let’s see how our eggplant parmesan is doing. Oh, it’s nice and bubbly. So here we are. This is a great dish to eat with a salad, room temperature or hot. You can make it before. And but let it rest for about 15 to 20 minutes before you serve it. So here it is, the eggplant parmesan.