17 hours ago, Smithy said:
Please tell more about the eggplant casserole: both what it's like at The Cupboard -- your target, as it were -- and what you've done to reproduce it. I like eggplant and am always on the lookout for good things to do with it. Especially if they're easy.
The casserole doesn't have a strong eggplant taste, but then, eggplant doesn't have a strong eggplant taste. I knew it had cracker crumbs and cheese, and made an educuated guess as to milk. It has a buttery flavor, too, and a crumb-and-cheese topping.
In yesterday's iteration, I roasted five small-medium globe eggplants for 40 minutes at 400F in the CSO on steam-bake. Let them cool, halved them and scooped out the flesh; it made about 2 1/2 cups when lightly mashed up. Stirred in two beaten eggs, about four ounces of grated co-jack cheese, a quarter-cup or so of half and half, and about 2/3 of a sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed into crumbs. Stirred that up and smoothed it out in a deep-dish pie plate. Topping was the rest of the sleeve of crushed Ritz, and about another 2 ounces of grated cheese. Baked at 350, steam bake, 30 minutes in the CSO.
It was close. Real close. Could have been a little saltier; I didn't salt, as both the cheese and the crackers are fairly salty. I might use grated Velveeta next time, and I think the topping would benefit from grated Parm. There was too much topping; I needed about half as much. I might add some melted butter next time. And it would have benefitted from some black pepper. Other than that, it was pretty much spot on.
Thd other eggplant treatment I really love is to take cubes of eggplant, toss them in a mixture of honey and miso, and roast them. Yumm-O!
