This recipe is featured in the debut video of my YouTube channel. Now and then, when Olive has the time and I have the inclination, a naked beet video will accompany one of my recipes. I hope you’ll enjoy this complement to the site.
Lest you think that I eat duck, cake and cookies all week long, I’d like to dispel that impression with another one of my healthy family recipes, learned by watching my Mom and Grandma prepare it. I imagine this recipe is 3000 years old and for centuries is no longer subject to evolutionary forces. Small changes to it are upsetting and might go somewhere, but nowhere I want to go in the Winter.
Like a good stew, this eggplant dish is an extremely satisfying vegetarian comfort food. It’s great to make on a weekend where a few initial prep steps provides you with a slow cooked meal in the afternoon. Although the eggplants are initially fried, this is a pretty healthy dish otherwise. Thinly sliced eggplants will produce slices that will fall apart easily under a fork and dissolve lusciously in your mouth. The texture of these eggplants aren’t nearly as meaty as you might encounter in an eggplant parmesan recipe. When they’re dipped in the egg batter, provided you don’t cut them razor thin, they will remain substantial patties, but silky soft at the same time.
Cooking them over the stove top rather than in the oven is traditional and also prevents the sauce from drying out. The tomato sauce should be tangy and though you may want to skip the frying step, you really shouldn’t. The minimal frying called for in this recipe preserves the shape of the eggplants while they cook in the sauce. If you want to “health it up” by removing the batter or battering them and then baking them instead of frying them, I can’t guarantee that the texture or flavor will remain as Grandma made it. I did experiment with a panko bread crumb instead of flour once and trust me, you don’t want to go this route. The crumbs disintegrated into the sauce, making it thicker and making the eggplants an unappealing departure from the truth. The bonus to this eggplant recipe? You don’t need to presalt them to take the bitterness out. They come out perfectly without this typical traditional step.
silken eggplants in tomato sauce
Makes about 14 servings (3 large slices per serving)
2 large eggplants
4-5 large eggs, beaten
1 cup of flour + more
dash of salt and pepper
1 large onion, sliced thinly
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small carrot, cut into thin rounds
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
tomato sauce
26 oz. strained tomatoes (I used Pomi brand)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar, (optional)
1/2 tbs oregano
1 tsp fennel
1/2 tbsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
dollop of sour cream
fresh chopped parsley
Slice the eggplant thinly into 1/4″ rounds. Cutting them at no thicker than this ensures they’ll cook through in the sauce. Set up a bowl with flour and season it with a dash of salt and pepper. Set up another bowl with eggs, seasoning it with salt and pepper, as well. Dredge each eggplant slice first in the flour, shaking off any excess, then the egg. Lightly fry the eggplant on both sides until golden brown. Reserve the fried slices on a plate while you work on the next step.
In a large bowl, mix the tomato sauce with all the herbs, salt, vinegar if you’re adding it, and water.
In a cast iron wide pot, saute the garlic, onions and carrots until the onions are slightly translucent. Ladle some of the tomato sauce over the onion mixture. (The onion layer prevents the eggplants from sticking or burning to the pan, while flavoring the sauce, too.) Start layering the eggplant slices in the pot, pouring a bit of tomato sauce between each eggplant layer. At the very end, pour enough sauce to just cover the eggplants. Depending on how big of a pot you’re using or how many slices you get if your sauce doesn’t cover the eggplants a bit, it’s ok to press down the eggplants slightly below the sauce line or add a mix of tomato paste, water and salt to just cover the eggplants. (I love having a tube of tomato paste on hand for just these kinds of emergencies!)
Over a very low flame, cover the pot and cook for 40-45 minutes. Check on the liquid every so often, adding more of the sauce so the eggplants stay submerged in the sauce. Once you remove the eggplants from your pot, the sauce can be whizzed up smooth or served as a textured sauce along with the slices.
Serve about 3-4 slices per person with a dollop of sour cream and fresh chopped parsley.
Here is a version of the YouTube video with music from Lord of the Rings. I hope you find the video as amusing as I did when Olive showed me what he created. The eggplants are obviously the heroes of this dish, but the fate of civilization does not hang in the balance here.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
i have sent this youtube video to my sister in pakistan. her cook watches the videos and replicates the dish- i know he will love this one. stunning aubergines! x shayma
I’m not a big fan of eggplant parmesan because of the cheese, but this recipe looks like a delicious alternative!
We are eggplant lovers, and yesterday we enjoyed your Silken Aubergine. Your recipes are so visually enticing, and reading the ingredients is a mouth-watering prelude to such delicious eating experiences. I say experiences because my family loves to eat. At breakfast we talk about lunch, and at lunch we plan dinner. It’s all so scrumptious; so now, what’s next?
This recipe looks fabulous. I love the addition of the sour cream at the end, and I’ll bet it’s the perfect pairing to this unctuous dish!
We love eggplant at our house — and I’m a big fan of frying it. So many people are frightened of the fat, but it imparts such an incredible amount of flavor, it’s really a shame not to! Salting/draining the eggplant thoroughly before frying helps to remove some of the moisture content of the eggplant — and it also keeps the eggplant from absorbing too much oil…
this really looks awesome. it’s so weird b/c i’ll usually cook ANYTHING, but i just do not do eggplant well. i’m almost afraid of it b/c i always try and it comes out s**tty. this looks so good. my grandma used to make something similar and i could eat it all day long w/ some crusty bread. you’re giving me the confidence to try making this. fabulous veggie meal!
I cannot wait for eggplants to be in season here in New England… it’s one of my favorite veggies, and this recipe looks fantastic!
This is my kind of meal.
Shayma, that’s so neat that you sent it to your sister!
Claire, this is definitely a great vegan/vegetarian alternative.
Sandra, your “what’s our next meal” conversations sound very familiar. We do the same thing here.
Lo, salting might definitely be true of most eggplant recipes, but this one can skip that step entirely. In fact, if you did do that here because of how thin you’re cutting the eggplant, the meat of the eggplant would start disintegrating. And yes, sour cream, yoghurt, creme fraiche if you have that, would all work.
we are never full, I hope this one works out for you and you enjoy it! ; )
Lauren, baby eggplants would be good for this, too. I usually make a big batch but there’s no reason why this can’t all be downsized to 2-3 servings (breakfast, lunch, dinner?)
Maria, thanks!
My wife makes a huge batch of your marvelous eggplants and doles them out for me to bring to work. I heat them up for a couple of minutes and enjoy a tasty hot lunch quite often which is to say many days in a row. Outstanding!
@galtgulch: They are surprisingly good as leftovers. I’m so glad you both found the recipe and enjoyed it. A homemade lunch packed by your wife? Lucky man. ; )