Grandma Saviano Double Fried Eggplant
by Anthony Speciale
(Pine Brook, NJ 07058 USA)
Grandma Saviano’s Eggplant
INGREDIENTS
2-3 med. –large purple eggplants, firm and not too fat on one end.
Home made tomato sauce;
1 32oz can of Italian whole tomatoes,
2 cloves garlic, salt, pepper, and fresh basil.
Plain bread crumbs – must be plain
Vegetable oil or very light olive oil
About 5 eggs
PREPARATION
Wash eggplant under water, Pell off skin and cut off ends
Cut into heavy 0.25 inch slices across eggplants, salt slightly heavy on each side of each piece and lie in a strainer with a dish under strainer to catch juices, over laying each other piece, place a smaller dish on top of eggplant center and add a weight on top, let sit for 1 hour to allow purple juices to come out.
Make gravy (Sauce) in a 3 qt pot, heat on mid-low,
Add some olive oil just too almost cover bottom of pot.
Finely chop 2 cloves of fresh garlic.
Open tomato can and put in blender, blend on low until all tomatoes have blended completely.
Add garlic to pot, simmer slowly do not burn garlic about 1 minute, add tomatoes from blender to pot, and salt, pepper, pitch of sugar and stir,
Add basil about 10 leaves, cook for 1 hour under mid-low heat, stir often.
When done it should be cooked down a little, if the gravy looks watery then cook 20 minutes more, then turn off and set a side to cool un-covered.
Check to see if eggplant juices have come out on bottom dish under strainer, if so, then remove eggplant one at a time and rinse under cold water to remove remaining salt, put 4 pieces to gather and squeeze out water between you two hands, after all pieces of eggplant has been rinsed and squeeze it’s time to fry.
Add vegetable oil in frying pan about 0.25 inch dept, put heat on mid-high and wait until oil is hot, lower flam to mid and place 4 pieces of eggplant in pan (plain), fry both sides to lightly tan, place fried eggplant pieces on clean brown paper to drain oil, as you’re frying the other pieces start lightly bread crumbing the eggplant pieces that you have already fried on both sides.
Set aside until all pieces of eggplant have been fried and bread crumbed.
Beat well- 5 eggs add salt and pepper, lower frying pan to mid-low add more vegetable oil if needed, reheat oil first if needed then dip one piece of breaded eggplant into eggs, then refry eggplant on both sides again, fry until golden on both side, remove and set on clean paper to drain oil.
When all eggplant pieces are done frying, turn off heat under pan.
In a casserole dish add some gravy to bottom from gravy pot, sprinkle some graded cheese on gravy, place one pieces of fried eggplant at a time to cover bottom of the casserole dish, add more gravy on top of eggplant to cover completely and more cheese, Add more eggplant on top of the first layer again add gravy and cheese, continue until all eggplant is used up, then add more gravy to fill sides or gaps and on top, add graded cheese to top also.
You’re done! Let set aside 1/2 hour before serving. The longer it sets the better it tastes.
You can re-heat in oven at 300 deg. 1/2 hour covered, or uncovered if the gravy seems a little watery. Its worth all this work and time.
Do not short cut any steps.......
