The last of the constant warm weather is gone for now and it was time to pull all the eggplant that was left in the garden. I am glad I did as some of them were already turning bad from the cold temps.
I had quite a few that I harvested so I had to decide what to do with them all. One thing about eggplant is that it does not last long once it is picked from the vine. I have frozen it in the past so that is what I decided to do with them.
This is one of the varieties I grew which had more of a globe shape compared to the Black Beauty type. It actually works nicely for making eggplant parmesan as the pieces are not too large.
I have sliced them all into a half-inch thickness and am ready to prepare them for the freezer.
I have the pieces all laid out onto a cookie sheet and then lightly salted them to release some of the water in them. After about 20 minutes I dried them with a paper towel and proceeded with the next step.
I have a bowl of beaten eggs to dip each piece into. Then I will dip them into the other bowl that has seasoned bread crumbs and a bit of parmesan cheese.
Onto the griddle they go to brown them on each side. I am not cooking them completely, just browning them as evenly as possible.
I lined the same baking sheet with parchment paper and placed the eggplant back onto the tray. Once they have cooled completely I place the whole tray into my freezer for 24 hours.
They are now completely frozen and ready to be vacuum-sealed for the freezer.
I had taken all these photos at the end of September when I was getting a lot of eggplant all at once. I had to repeat the process this week with the last of them, thankfully, I already knew I had the photos already.
We got to enjoy fresh eggplant parmesan that night with the last of the ripened tomatoes from the garden too. It doesn't get any better than that in my opinion.
My freezer is fully stocked for the winter, and my pantry shelves are filled with canned produce from the immense bounty my garden produced. I imagine that my grocery bill will be very little over the next few months.
I hope you have had a bountiful harvest as well and will get to enjoy the fruit of your labor all year long.
Until next time, this is Sunscape
Sun. Scape. Ing Your Day