Side Dish -- Scalloped Eggplant
Submitted by dvdlee on August 27, 2004 at 10:16 am

DESCRIPTION
Side Dish -- Scalloped Eggplant

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under Misc. Recipes & Requests

INSTRUCTIONS
I love this dish. It is derived from the 1953 version of Joy of Cooking (which also has a LOT of other eggplant recipes: baked, sauteed w/ cream, souffle).

This is similar to the scalloped eggplant served in many cafeterias (such as Luby's) here in the South. When I make this my spouse refuses to come in the kitchen because they hate the smell of eggplant (go figure!) -- but I ususually eat the entire thing by myself (over 2 days though! LOL)!

1 medium-sized eggplant (peeled and diced)
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 small onion (1/2 of a big) finely chopped
4 Tablespoons of butter (1 + 3)
3/4 cup hand-crushed saltine crakers (approx.)
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika (sweet, not hot)
Dash of Tabasco Sauce
1/2 cup milk
3 - 4 oz. grated or sliced mild- to-medium chedder cheese

(Makes around 4 servings)

Preheat oven to 375F

Boil the water in a saucepan, when the water is boiling, add the eggplant pieces and cook until tender (a fork easily pierces the vegetable). Drain well. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley

Place 1 Tablespoon of butter in a small skillet over medium-heat. Saute onion until light brown (6 minutes or so). Remove from heat and add to eggplant pieces. Lightly combine and mix.

Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter and mix with the hand-crushed cracker crumbs (they should be crushed as finely as you can between your hands, but they should not be uniform in size).

In a baking dish (I usually use my 8" round corningware) place a layer of eggplant, a layer of crumbs, eggplant and then crumbs.

Add tabasco to milk (you can also add a little black pepper)then pour over cassarole, then top with cheese. Bake around 1/2 hour

You can add small quantities of other items to this cassarole (1/4 cup of diced drained tomatoes, some pecans, etc.)

To make this into an entree add 1 pint of oysters (raw) to the layers (eggplant, crackers, oysters, eggplant, crumbs, cheese).

Slightly reduce the milk and add some of the oyster liquor.

You can also increase/decrease the milk (depending on how dry or mushy you like it). I usually just just a little more than 1/2 cup (If you are living like a grasshopper (only for today, not your future health) -- use half-n-half instead of milk!)