Delectables with Dan: Thicc & Delicious...Eggplant Parmesan! 🍆

It's been a hot minute since I've done a Delectables with Dan! I decided the other week that I would do up a nice cooking blog for you guys. I had another dish in mind, but this one will be a little more fun to make. That being said, I should probably do a baking one, something summer infused. This dish can be made any time of the year, but I love making it in the summer with fresh produce! Can't get anything better than that. Fried eggplant made up into an eggplant parmesan with lots of rich meatsauce, herbs and mozerella cheese as an added bonus. Sadly, Mr Thicc and Delicious won't be here to help, but I know he's craving something that's also delicious...Let's get on with it. Ingredients: 1 large eggplant/ aubergine cut into evenly sliced wheels. They should be no thicker than 1/2 inch. 4 large eggs* you may find that you need a little more depending on the size of your eggplant. 😏 Fresh ground black pepper sea salt Basil and Oregano 2 cloves fresh garlic 1 1/4c. parmesan cheese 1c mozerella cheese 1 tsp olive oil 2 tins whole peeled or crushed tomatoes LARGE 3c. Italian Style Bread Crumbs 1 c. veggie oil * I find that sometimes if I use a store brand or a national brand I need a different amount of oil. I have no idea why. Maybe it's all in my head. The consistancy is slighly different. Anyone else notice this?? 1 box whole wheat pasta of your choice 1lb mince, cooked. First you need to prepare your eggplant. Once the eggplant is sliced, lay the rounds on a rack over a rimmed sheet pan. Sprinkle both sides with salt and cover with papertowel. Allow moisture to release for 2 hours. It's important to do this. Eggplant can be very bitter without doing this step, so don't skip it or rush with it. While the eggplant is releasing it's wears all over the papertowel, you have time to make the fresh sauce that we're going to use with this dish. In a large and deep sauce pan, pour into it the tinned tomatoes, olive oil, pinch of sea salt, pinch of fresh black pepper, 1 1/2 tablespoons of basil and oregano. Crush the tomatoes if you have the whole peeled ones. Sometimes I feel depending on the size of the tin that I'm using I might need another tin. It's up to you how much sauce you want to make. Sometimes I make extra to freeze for a quick meal during the week. Dice up one of your cloves of garlic and add to sauce. Add in your cooked mince. *If you need to know how to cook the mince, do so on medium-high heat with a pinch of salt. That's how I always do mine for a nice meat sauce. Stir well and allow to simmer on low heat. It doesn't take 2 hours to make the sauce so you'll have to figure out something to do while your plant and sauce are gearing up to be part of this delicious dish. I can think of a few things you could do while you wait...but this isn't the blog post for that. Just make sure that you wash your hands when you're finished. Now that all that's out of the way, it's time to check on your eggplant. You're going to need to boil water for your pasta! I always add a teeny pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of olive oil into the water. Once the water reaches a boil, add in your pasta. You're going to need two large mixing bowls. One for your breadcrumbs and one for your eggs. Add your parmesan cheese to your breadcrumbs. I should point out that if you are using unseasoned breadcrumbs, you might want to add a little bit of Italian seasoning to it. Gives the dish a nice little extra layer of flavour. And we don't do bland in this house. Beat your eggs well before dipping each side of you eggplant in it. Once you've coated each slice evenly with one coat of breading, you're going to repeat the process so that each of the eggplant slices are double coated. While you're breading your eggplant wheels, you're going to want to heat the vegetable oil and add in your fineally diced garlic. Yeah, that's where the second clove comes into play here. I really love garlic, so sometimes I add a little bit more. It's totally up to you. Once the oil is nice and hot you're going to add 2-3 wheels to the pan, depending on their size and allow them to cook 2-3 minutes on each side before removing them and setting them on a lightly greased baking sheet. A nice simple squirt of a non-stick spray will do the trick. It's important not to skip this step because we're going to need to pop the full baking tray into the oven in just a minute. Once all of your eggplant wheels are fried and placed on the baking sheet, you may need a second tray depending on the size of the epplant used and the number of slices you have in total. Sprinkle your mozerella cheese over the top of the eggplant slices. Put into a 350F oven and allow cheese to melt and turn golden brown. Make sure that you strain the water out of your pasta well. We don't want a watery sauce after all that effor to make a nice thicc one. Remove from oven. Plate your pasta, cover with a decent ladelfull of meatsauce and finally and carefully top with your eggplant parmesan! And to answer the question "Why do you do most of your recipes in American measurments and not metric?" Is because most of my audience is American. Upon request I can give metrics for my recipes as I use metric myself in the kitchen. So much easier and more precise. : ) Hence why I use certain American terms for things.