Oven baked eggplant - general principles and methods of preparation
All year round on the shelves we can see this wonderful oblong vegetable of blue-violet color. Previously, eggplant was mostly fried. A tasty and healthy treat turned into a fatty dish with an abundance of carcinogens, since when frying eggplants absorb a large amount of oil. Modern technologies have stepped far forward, providing us with a large number of highly functional equipment: ovens, stoves, microwave ovens, multicookers. Along with them, there were many recipes for baking products. Baked eggplant in the oven, perhaps, occupy the highest level of popularity. And no wonder!
Baked eggplant is a tasty and healthy dish, combined with a large number of ingredients. You can cook different options at least every day, and they can never get bored. Eggplants themselves contribute to a balanced diet, while being sources of various substances of great value to the body (potassium, phosphorus, iron, vegetable proteins). In the oven, the filling absorbs moisture from the fruits and prevents them from absorbing oil or other fats, so the dishes are varied and, most importantly, healthy. The most inept mistress will be able to cook them correctly, they are almost impossible to spoil. Using different fillings, each time you can discover this vegetable from different sides.
Oven baked eggplant - preparation of products
Correctly preparing eggplant for baking means removing bitterness from them. This is easy to do - cut them in half and add salt, leave for 20 minutes. Then rinse under running water - all the bitterness will be removed along with the juice. Choose medium-sized, uniformly colored fruits, juicy, with green tails. The peel in this case is not removed, and if the fruits are overripe - remove the core and do not use it to minimize the content of unhealthy solanine. The filling should be prepared and brought to at least half-cooked, as the eggplant is cooked quickly - 30-40 minutes will not pass, the aromatic dish is ready!
Recipe 1: Oven Baked Eggplant in Milk Sauce
Milk sauce or milk gravy is not very often used with eggplant. But in vain! Milk sauce perfectly softens minced meat and neutralizes tomato sharpness.
Ingredients: eggplant (3 pcs, about 600 g.), minced meat, preferably non-fat (300 g), onions (1 pc., about 100 grams), tomatoes (300 g.), vegetable oil, garlic, a bunch of parsley, salt, pepper.
Sauce: flour (2 tablespoons), butter (2 tbsp. Tablespoons), milk (250 g.), Egg (1 pc.), Grated cheese (50 grams).
Cooking method
Prepared eggplant leave to remove bitterness. At this time, fry the minced meat with finely chopped onions. Stew the tomatoes and parsley separately, squeeze the garlic. You need to wait until the liquid evaporates, and then combine the mixture with minced meat. Dry the eggplant with a napkin and fill it with minced meat. Preparing the sauce: fry the flour in a saucepan or pan and add the butter. We dilute everything with milk so that there are no lumps. Carefully pour the beaten egg into the slightly cooled sauce, salt and add the grated cheese. Eggplants placed on a baking sheet (recessed upwards) are poured with sauce and put in the oven for baking. The sauce should be browned. You can add some water. Fans of spicy and piquant tastes can add a little grated ginger to the minced meat.
Recipe 2: Oven baked eggplant in sour cream
In this recipe we use a good piece of low-fat beef, which we boil and cut into strips. Tomatoes and lemon will do their job - the dish turns out with a pleasant acidity, which enhances, in general, the not too pronounced taste of the eggplant.
Ingredients: eggplant (5 pcs.), beef (200 grams), tomatoes (3 pcs.), onion, parsnip, garlic, half a lemon, sunflower oil, dill, pepper, salt, sour cream 150 grams.
Cooking method
First, boil the beef, since it takes the most time to cook it. Do not forget to salt it and remove the foam on time. Wash the tomatoes and pour boiling water over them. Peel and peel the seeds. Cut everything into small pieces. Stew in a skillet until half cooked, add 100 grams of meat broth. After 10 minutes, squeeze the juice from half a lemon, grate the zest and add chopped dill. Cut the meat into thin strips, mix with the rest of the composition.
We do not cut the stalk from the eggplant - it will serve as a decoration. Cut the eggplant like a book, leaving one side unfinished. Remove the middle, lower them into boiling water for 5 minutes (add salt to the water). We stuff the eggplants and lay them tightly in a baking dish. Water them with sour cream and put in the oven for 1 hour. Serve garnished with greens with a little sour cream.
Recipe 3: Eggplant Baked in the Oven under Cheese
Any products baked under a fragrant cheese crust are a classic of the genre. This property of cheese is quite applicable for eggplant. It turns out a really serious meat dish, rich, nutritious, after it you don’t want to have a bite for a long time. Call it what you want: puff or stuffed - it doesn't matter. The main thing is that it is very tasty.
Ingredients: (small, 5-6 pcs), minced meat (1 kg), onion (2-3 pcs), hard cheese (50 grams), milk (150 ml.), eggs (3-4 pcs), a glass of tomato juice with pulp, salt, pepper, dill, parsley, butter or vegetable oil for frying.
Cooking method
Cut the washed eggplant into quarters and fry in vegetable oil. Half the fried fruit is placed in a pan, peeled down. On the first layer we put pieces of butter. Then evenly stack the minced meat mixed with chopped herbs and salted. Spread the onion fried in vegetable oil on top, fill with tomato juice and spread the remaining eggplant with the crusts up. Pour all the eggs with whipped milk and mixed with grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
Recipe 4: Stuffed Eggplant Baked with Almonds and Mayonnaise
The piquant and refined taste of almonds will make our dish completely new, not simple, but very original. Mixing almonds with ginger and lemon, we get a very oriental taste. The meat and zucchini make it rich and nutritious, but not very heavy.
Ingredients: eggplant (4 pcs), minced meat (chicken or beef, 250 grams), zucchini (half a medium-sized fruit), almonds (150 grams), half a lemon, ginger, mayonnaise (2 tablespoons), herbs, salt.
Cooking method
Cut the middle of the eggplant. Zucchini cut into cubes, fry in a spoonful of oil. Add the eggplant pulp and other ingredients: onion, garlic, salt, fry for another 5 minutes. Grind the almond kernels in a coffee grinder and add the juice of half a lemon along with grated zest and mashed ginger. We mix the filling with ground beef, we stuff the eggplants with the filling and pour the almond sauce. Bake at high temperature - about 220 degrees. Bake for about 40 minutes. Before serving, do not forget to sprinkle with chopped dill.
Oven baked eggplants - useful tips from experienced chefs
- In order to better rid eggplant of bitterness, you can make cross-shaped incisions on them and add salt for a while.
- You can get rid of excessive absorption of oil during the frying process if you put eggplants under load for a while - so more juice will stand out even before frying.
- A spicy garlic flavor of the dish can be given by cutting the skin of the fruit and stuffing it with cloves of garlic.
