Hence a laundry basket full of about 2 dozen eggplant that needed to be taken care of. From previous pickings we are set regarding babaganoush/ baked eggplant for my Indian dishes. So it obviously was time to 'Google' about freezing eggplant. It wasn't a difficult process, just time consuming.
I spent an entire afternoon washing, peeling, slicing, blanching in 4 minutes of boiling water (1/2 c lemon juice / gallon), ice bathing immediately and freezer packaging that eggplant harvest last Thursday. A straw was my best friend for removing the air from each full ziploc baggie to prevent freezer burn.
The remaining six eggplant received the same treatment but were dipped into egg and dredged in panko bread crumbs mixed with some flour and italian seasoning to bread the the slices before freezing. Natureman helped me cut that chore in half as 4 hands are better than 2 in working quickly so that discoloring was at a minimum. WHEW...
AND LOOK how much got to be frozen. I told you that we were eggplant rich. These packages will now be moved to the large upright freezer in the garage. To be perfectly honest I don't even think that we will need to grow eggplant next year.
The leftover breaded eggplant got made into eggplant parmesan for Friday's dinner.
Just cooked down spaghetti sauce, fry breaded eggplant slices, drained on paper towel. For something different I sauteed some mushrooms and added to sauce.
Layers :
1. A little homemade spaghetti sauce to cover bottom of casserole dish
2. Place fried eggplant layer eggplant, sauce with sauteed mushrooms,
3. Mixed cheeses (romano/ parmesan)
4.Repeated process ending with cheese..
Served with a salad and fresh bread, we were happy as clams.(kosher ones of course!)
Fast forward four days now and look what was awaiting me today in the kitchen...
Oh no... more eggplant!
Rainbow Valley certainly didn't have an eggplant crop failure this year.
thank you for the tips, I've never really tackled them before but they don't sound so scary now. I don't think you'll ever see me canning or freezing them though - no room ...no desire!
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