Pan Fried Eggplant

I like eggplant may ways - grilled, roasted, curried, in bhaba ghanoush, in eggplant parmesan, and even

fried. Fried eggplant is so tasty, and a lot faster than roasting in the oven for an hour. It is not, however, very healthy. And, if you salt the eggplant first, which you usually have to, it's not even that fast. Enter my new technique, which will give you delicious and healthy pan-fried eggplant in about 20 minutes.

Ingredients

One eggplant

Cooking spray or a small amount olive/canola oil

Salt (to taste)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Stove

Saucepan (the wider it is, the more slices you can do at once)

Fork

Instructions

1. Wash your eggplant and cut off the stem (don't peel it or your slices will fall apart in the pan). Slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds.

2. Turn your saucepan on to medium heat and mist with cooking spray. Place into it as many slices of eggplant as you can without overlapping them, then mist again with cooking spray to cover the tops.

3. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until they begin to steam. Press down pretty hard on the top of each slice with a fork so the moisture begins to seep out, moving around the surface of the slice to get the moisture out of the entire slice. Flip the slices.

4. Cook for another minute, then press down again with the fork along the whole surface of each slice. Flip again.

5. Repeat 1-3 rounds of cooking for a minute, depressing with a fork, and flipping until each slice is cooked through (it should be translucent, with no whitish patches).

6. Give each slice a nice crispy edge by cooking for 30 seconds on each side without pressing down with the fork, then transfer to a plate to cool. Sprinkle with salt.

7. Repeat cooking process for remaining slices.

While you can eat the fried eggplant plain, I would also recommend cutting the slices into pieces and adding to a pasta dish (I'll send out a recipe for what I did with mine), using in a panini, or making eggplant rolatinis by wrapping each slice around ricotta or fresh mozzarella (perhaps with some sundried or fresh tomato, roasted red peppers, or hot peppers in the middle).