Italian Salmon And Fried Eggplant

We had five nice small eggplant to harvest and Cindy wanted to turn them into our skillet (not casserole) version of eggplant Parmesan (basically fried eggplant and we had some salmon in the fridge that needed to be used so we combined them into this meal.  Since it turned out to be Italian night, I used a recipe for Salmon Baked In Foil from Giada DeLaurentis. 

Salmon Baked In Foil – Adapted from Food Network

The Ingredients:

4 (5 ounces each) salmon fillets

2 teaspoons olive oil plus 2 tablespoons

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tomatoes, chopped

2 chopped shallots

3 garlic cloves minced (Larry addition)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

The Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. A couple of hours before cooking time, stir the tomatoes, shallots, 2 tablespoons of oil, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper in a medium bowl to blend.

3. Sprinkle salmon with 2 teaspoons olive oil, salt, and pepper.

4. Place a salmon fillet, oiled side down, atop a sheet of foil.

5. Top each filet with one fourth of the salsa, fold packets to seal well, and lay on a baking sheet.

6. Bake until the salmon is just cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Using a large metal spatula, transfer the foil packets to plates and serve or remove from foil and add to add to a plate.

Skillet Eggplant Parmesan Ala Beverly

Egglant – slice lengthwise about 3/8” thick, we used three of them - Note 1

Flour for dusting

2 eggs, beaten with a tbsp of water

Italian bread crumbs, or your favorite

Marinara sauce, hot

White melting cheese

Shredded Parmesan

Note 1: For larger black eggplant, slice crosswise

The Directions:

1. In a small shallow bowl, beat the egg with 1/4 teaspoon salt. In 2 more separate shallow dishes, pour the flour and breadcrumbs. 

2. Dredge each slice of eggplant in flour, coating it thoroughly then gently tapping off excess, then in egg mixture, then in the breadcrumbs, pressing them to help them stick. Transfer coated eggplant to a wire rack and allow the coating to set 20 minutes.

3. In a tall sided skillet, heat about ¼” of oil to 375F and fry eggplant to a golden brown about 2 minutes, then flip, add cheese then hot marinara to each slice.

4. Remove to the rack, top with fresh grated Parmesan if only cooking one batch.

5. Keep first batch is a 160F oven while cooking second batch.  

6. When salmon is done, plate and serve.

The Verdict:

Cindy had always eaten baked eggplant Parmesan and said the skillet version was her best eggplant ever and it’s so easy and much faster (no baking time) than the casserole.  We all loved the salmon and I used all of the salsa on our four filets and cooked it about 20 minutes.  This was an easy and delicious way to prepare the salmon and I will use the recipe again, but we all agreed that we prefer the mango salsa that we have used before.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/25/20 meal date