How to make Eggplant Casserole

Beryl Stokes: Hi, welcome to Cajun Cooking TV. Tonight we are cooking Eggplant Casserole, to go along with that real stake. So let's get started. First, we have four medium sized eggplants, I have already peeled three of them already. So I say this one to show you, I am just going to take this eggplant, and we are going to peel it so, and cut off the top. I am going to cut off a little bit at the bottom, so I have a flat surface. So then I can just do it on the cutting board like this, and all I am going to do, you want to get on this side Mike so they can see. Just I am going to go along and skin the potato through my peering knife would be better and just peel it just like this and then follow the curve down at the bottom. So just peel it all the way around. I have already got some cubed here in the pot. That was the three eggplants. Today, we made some homemade chicken stock. So we are going to use some of that. I have put about a cup already in the six-quart pot there. This is really a easy casserole. I have made it several times with shrimp. Tonight we are going to use a ground pork, and a ground round. Mike: This is dancing song here mother--- Beryl Stokes: This is Mikes dancing song. We have to take a break for a second and dance to Boogie Chillen by John Fred. So what we are going to do is just cut this in half. I am going to cut it into one inch cubes by just slicing it like this, and then cut into about one-inch sections. Put this in a big pot, let that rest. I can hear that chicken stock already starting to boil down there. We are going to cook this down till it's really tender. Probably just take about 10 or 15 minutes. Slice these up. We are just going to put some sea-salt, just sprinkle little sea-salt there, and I am going to put it and sprinkle the Tony's on this, and we will season to taste later on when we start mixing some things together. So you can see down in here, I have about tow or three cups of that chicken stock and this is going to help cook this down and it's going to make it a very nice flavor than just using regular water. For our chicken stock, all I did was buy one chicken drumstick and then put some celery and onion in there. So now we got a quick chicken stock without using something out of the can. So this is gong to cook down. We will be right back. Okay. We are melting it in a heavy skillet here. We have got one stick of butter. That may seem like a lot of butter, but that' what you need, and we are going to absorb that with these breadcrumbs in just a little bit. This eggplant is cooking down, so we want to get our vegetables, our Cajun Trinity, we have two cups of Cajun Trinity here. And we have it frozen, because we'll make it all in one time. We are going to saute this up, and get all these vegetables cooked. Then, we are going to start adding in our lean ground beef, and we have got half a pound of ground lean pork. We will get going on this. I am ready to add in the ground meat. That was the ground round there. And then I have got a half-a-pound of ground pork here, and then I had my flat edge spatula. With this spatula, we are just going to break this up, cook it really well. And we want just small pieces, so we are going to keep breaking it up as we cook it. Everything is just about ready. I just want to make sure all the big pieces of this eggplant are good and mashed up. So I've got my whisk. If you have a potato masher, maybe use that. You just want to make sure all the big chunks are mashed up good, because you don't want it to be chunky. Our meat is all ready. So I am going to pour this mixture into the mix here. The meat is all brown. So first of all I am going to toss in one cup, our breadcrumbs to soak up some of this moisture. We preheated our oven on 375. I am going to place this in a baking dish, then we are going to bake it for 30 minutes. See how that breadcrumbs are soaken up. I am just going to pour this in. This is heavy. Here we go. We are going to top it with some more breadcrumbs, just about a cup. This is the Italian one, so it doesn't matter. I am going to sprinkle that around all over the top. Give a little crunchy kind a taste as it's baking. We are going to bake it uncovered for 30 minutes. Hey! We are back. It's been 30 minutes. Our Casserole is golden brown on top, and crusty brown on the edges just right. I am going to scoop some out. You can serve this just like this as a side item like we are going to do night with our stake. I have also brought this to parties, and served it with crackers, and kept it warm, and it was just also good. That we want to actually make it with shrimp, and it is such a hit. So you can either make it with shrimp, or ground meat, and ground pork. It is so good. You have been watching Cajun Cooking TV and we thank you for joining us. Be sure to check out our website. It's cajuncookingtv.com. Bye, bye.