Baked Eggplants

My 11-year-old changed the dinner menu again. I was planning on having grilled salmon belly but she asked if we could have fried chicken thigh fillets instead. I though it meant she would be in charge of the cooking. I agreed. The chicken thigh fillets were taken out of the freezer and thawed. An hour before dinner time, she and her sister had commandeered my computer and was on the Disney site playing games online. Which meant she was not going to bother about dinner. Oh, well.

I did the baked eggplants to accompany the chicken fillets. This recipe is a simpler version of the classic Greek moussaka. The eggplants are sliced, pan-fried in olive oil, arranged on a baking dish, topped with chunky tomato sauce and grated cheese, then baked just until the eggplants and sauce are heated through and the cheese melts.

Ingredients :

5-6 medium-sized eggplants
8 tbsps. of olive oil
3 segments of garlic, finely minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
a pinch of dried basil
1 c. of tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
grated cheese

Cooking procedure :

Prepare the chunky tomato sauce.

Heat 2 tbsps. of olive oil in a small saucepan. Saute the garlic and chopped onion until fragrant. Add the chopped tomato and bell pepper, and the bay leaf. Cook until the vegetables are limp. Pour in the tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the dried basil.

Cut off the tops of the eggplants. Cut in half crosswise then cut each half vertically in two.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet. Pan-fry the sliced eggplants in batches until lightly browned, turning once during cooking. Add more olive oil if necessary (if you’re using big eggplants, you may really need more than 6 tbsps.).

Arrange the fried eggplants on a single layer in a baking dish. Pour the chunky tomato sauce over them. Garnish with grated cheese. Bake in a 425^oF oven for 10 minutes or until hot and the cheese melts.

Serve as a side dish to fried or grilled meat, poultry or seafood.