Eggplant Two Ways: Grilled and Parmesan

I love eggplants for some reason, both the look of them in my garden or on the counter and the taste. They were on sale a couple of days ago so I bought two. I grilled some slices over the barbecue for dinner one night, just slicing, brushing with oil and chopped garlic, and grilling until soft. Yesterday I realized that what I had left wasn’t going to fit into dinner plans for the next few nights so I decided to cook and freeze slices dipped in bread crumbs and fried, the first step to making eggplant Parmesan. I’d read that they freeze okay like this so we’ll find out later.

But I have to admit I snuck a few slices for dinner after cooking them last night and they were delicious! I sliced them into 1/2″ slices, sprinkled with salt and put them on a cookie rack over the sink for half an hour. Rinsed the salt off and dried them. Then dipped each slice in flour, then egg beaten with a little water, then seasoned bread crumbs. Fried them in oil until browned and soft in the middle and drained them on paper towels. I flash froze them on a cookie sheet and put them in to a freezer bag for another day when I can fit them into the menu.

Note that you could spray the slices with olive oil and bake rather than fry, if you wanted to lighten up the recipe.

Updated to add: Here’s a more detailed recipe for eggplant parmesan I added later.