Eggplant Fritters

Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

Eggplants are fairly abundant back home. The common varieties we have are the Japanese and the small and round ones which is like a miniature version of the eggplants sold in the grocery stores here.  We usually cook them using a charcoal grill until the skin is charred. At that point, you peel off the skin and you either turn it into a cold salad by adding diced tomatoes and onions and seasoned with salt and pepper or you can turn the soft meat into fritters. Growing up, eggplant fritters are one of my favorite lunch meals with rice. The fritter itself is very simple and is prepared by adding an egg to the mashed grilled eggplant meat and flavored with salt and pepper. It is then fried over hot oil until golden brown. 

The eggplants here in the US are on the larger scale and the meat, though fleshy and having less seeds are on the bland side. To remedy this, I have adjusted my fritter recipe by adding Italian bread crumb mix to add more flavor to the fritter. You can either bake the eggplant at 350°F for about an hour until the skin if fairly browned or you can boil the eggplant which saves you some cooking time. Make sure that you poke some holes into the skin before baking or broiling though to ensure that the heat penetrates into the meaty flesh. Once cooked, you peel off the skin and mash the meat. For each eggplant, I add 1/3 cup of the Italian bread crumb mix, 1/4 cup of diced onions, a clove of minced garlic, an egg and season with salt and pepper. To fry, just add enough oil to cover the frying pan and at medium heat, fry the flattened dollops of the fritter mix until golden brown. Great eaten as is or served with steamed rice.