Eggplant Parmesan I've had before, but I don't recall deep-frying the eggplant. Maybe that's where the Napoleon comes in. I have to double check the recipe next time. This recipe makes six, and I'm only one, sometimes two, when I get James to help. I bought three entire eggplants for this recipe. Since re-heating deep-fried foods usually doesn't work well, I only deep fried one set of slices.
It is a well-layered recipe, with a lot of depth. Battered and deep-fried eggplant, with tomato sauce in the middle and fresh mozzerela and freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese on top, then broiled for a few minutes. Its kind of like a deep fried eggplant pizza margherita...so if you're craving pizza, consider this recipe.
As you may know, or have guessed, James likes his food pretty spicy, and I like mine a little spicy, but not near James Learman spicy(burn your tonsils off spicy). However, with only 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper, even I found the tomato sauce to be a bit bland. However, since sauces keep well, and I made the entire recipe worth of the sauce, I added a fresh cayenne pepper to the jar I put the sauce in and let it sit overnight. The flavor was just about perfect after that. James would have even called it passable.
This recipe did call for Peanut Oil for frying. Having heard it has a good flavor, I ponied up the extra dollar for the peanut oil and found the rumor to be true. I love when that happens! Normally, I cheat and buy canola oil or vegetable oil for deep-frying. James offered to take the rest of it off my hands and nearly lost a hand in the process;-). Instead, I strongly recommended he get his own peanut oil, this time.
We also found that when I put the eggplant under the broiler again to heat them up the next night, and almost burned them, they were a much better texture for eating. The peel on the side was still a little tough when we had them originally...when broiling with cheese...your dish is probably not done until the top is mostly brown, not just spotted.
It took some work, but is a fun and different use for eggplants that I hadn't tried yet. I enjoyed making this recipe, though I'd rather make it for the nieces and nephews on a weekend day, only I'd call them eggplant pizzas and keep the tomato sauce mostly bland...though I will sneak in some extra cayenne and some smoked paprika to bump up the flavor a little. I will definitely make this dish again.
And thank you James, for being my sous-chef in all of this;-)
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