eggplant parm

Let me begin by saying that I had a pretty tasty eggplant parm on Sunday night when I was at the staff and council thank you dinner.

Luckily, I had picked up two of these last week:

The Book: (Thanks, mom for a gift from many years ago.)

The recipe: (p. 518)

Things were off to a good start. From the egg and flour (here's another purpose...coating eggplant)

To the frying stage....

Until the last batch....when apparently the pan was just too hot.  

The kitchen was a bit smoky, and the last two slices looked like this:

They may have been salvageable, but smelled so smoky and burn-ey that I just pitched them. As I've been watching a fair amount of Chopped and Top Chef, I've learned that it's better to leave it off the plate if it's not up to par.  

So the other slices went in the pan, topped with grated Parmesan, spaghetti sauce, and then some grated mozzarella.  

After baking for the allotted time, I turned on the broiler and finished it off.  

It came out looking like this: 

It was easy and tasty.

I had it alongside a tasty salad....

Chef's Notes:

It was yummy and it will be a repeat recipe with one major change.  

It was lacking in salt.  The only salt in the dish was in the parm directly on the eggplant before the sauce and baking. 

I have two thoughts, but am also open to other suggestions.

1) salt and pepper the flour before dredging the eggplant in it.

2) as soon as the eggplant is fried season them with salt (like you would onion rings)

 So, all you great chefs out there how/when would you salt it?  

Until the next post . . .