Monday, August 21, 2006

How to Make Eggplant Parmesan as a Medical Student

Tonight I did the comparison test of the eggplants from Farmer's Market. My verdit: I like the deep purple eggplant (left on the picture with roasting pans seen in recipe instructions) better than the pretty, bright purple eggplant (right). Sorry, I didn't have time to do the research as to what the two kinds were. To mke, the deep colored one had more flavor. It was not bitter (I've bever noticed eggplant being bitter). The other eggplant had a great texture but not much flavor. So, if I'm going to look at the eggplant, I choose bright. If I'm going to eat it, I choose deep purple. Now on to the dish.

I'm going to present this recipe in a different manner tonight. Side note: if you are NOT in medical school, you can make this without the interjections of studying.

Eggplant Parmesan
1-2 eggplants, sliced in 1/4 inch thick discs
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese
fresh parmesan cheese

Cut the eggplants (I do no peel) and place them on a roasting pan. Spray with cooking spray in a liberal manner. Season with salt. Bake for 15 minutes. *Return to your laptop where you finish listening to the 1 pm lecture, making sure that your notes are correct so that you don't get fined $25 per mistake*

Remove the eggplant from oven and flip the pieces. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until soft. *Return to laptop where you e-mail the printing service to print your now finished notes. Be sure to get the correct number and color of paper. Upload the notes to the digital dropbox making sure that the title is done correctly, once again avoiding fines.*

Remove eggplant from oven and decrease temperature to 325 degrees F. Place 1/2 of the eggplant pieces in a baking dish. Top with tomato sauce so that each piece of eggplant has some sauce on it but can still be seen. Put /4 cup mozarrella on this and grate some parmesan cheese on top. Repeat the layers with a little more spaghetti sauce here than on previous layer. Top with remaining cheese and grate Parmesan liberally over top. Place in oven for 35 minutes.
*Return to laptop where you study about immunoglobulin structure. Be sure to know the difference between epitopes, paraptopes, isotopes, isotypes, and allotopes.*

Remove the Eggplant Parmesan from the oven. While it cools a bit, cook some pasta (I like whole wheat) or serve over whole wheat toast (I like this better than pasta).
*Take a break from studying to enjoy the eggplant you just cooked!*

This is my ARF/5-A-Day submission at Sweetnicks. Be sure to visit there tomorrow (Tuesday) to see other great recipes!

5 comments:

The Cookbook Junkie said...

Maybe I should just shellac those eggplants LOL. Well, at this rate I may never get around to cooking them.

Annie said...

Now I want to make eggplant parm. But I don't want to study medicine. Sounds really hard. Glad you are though, we need good doctors!

Unknown said...

Paula - Cook them! They may still just wither even with shellac! :-)

Annie - Go for it! I really love eggplant, I could eat it every week. There are definitely times when I don't like medical school. Thankfully, I know it's where I'm supposed to be and (usually) enjoy what I'm learning, although I could do without all the studying! :-)

Crystal said...

Love the eggplant parm! You might want to use your lesser favorite eggplant in a stirfry. I found that they hold up really well for that.

-Crystal

Unknown said...

Crystal - A stir fry sounds delicious! I haven't made one in a while but may have to try that soon!