Eggplant gratin is a delicious dish in which eggplant, tomato and cheese are layered out and baked. The top layer of cheese and breadcrumbs gives the perfect crusty taste to it.
Gratin is known to have originated in French cuisine and is a culinary technique in which an ingredient is topped with a browned crust, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese, egg and/or butter
My husband and I love travelling and for us, trying the local cuisines is a very important part of any trip. A few days back, when I was checking up restaurants for our upcoming trip, I came across a dish called as Eggplant Gratin. Since I had never heard of it, I googled it and came across several recipes for it. It looked very interesting and I thought of trying my own version of it.
The first time I made Eggplant gratin, I was totally unsure of how it would turn out. I did not even note down the measurements or take any pictures. However, everyone at home loved the eggplant gratin so much that I was asked to make it again within a week 🙂 Of course I was happy, and this time I made sure  to take pictures before everyone attacked it 😛
Here is the step by step Eggplant gratin recipe with pictures:
Serves : 2-3
Preparation Time : 20 min
Cooking time : 2 hours
Ingredients:
Eggplants: 2 big
Onion: 2 medium chopped
Tomatoes: 5-6 large chopped
Capsicum: 1 medium finely chopped
Garlic: 3 cloves finely chopped
Dried Oregano: 1 tsp
Dried Basil: 1 tsp
Pepper Powder: 1 tsp
Cheddar Cheese: 2 cups grated
Parmesan Cheese: 1 cup grated
Bread Crumbs: 1/2 cup
Olive oil: 1/4 cup
Salt: to taste
Method of Preparation:
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking tray with olive oil.
- Cut the eggplant into circular slices of 1/2 inch thickness.
- Apply olive oil to eggplant slices and place on baking tray.
- Bake the eggplant for 20 minutes turning in between.
- Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add onion and garlic and stir fry till translucent.
- Add capsicum and stir fry for 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and stir fry till soft.
- Add oregano, basil, 1/2 tsp pepper powder and salt to taste. Mix well.
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking bowl.
- Add a layer of tomato mixture followed by a layer of eggplants. Add a layer of cheddar cheese on top ( around 1 cup).
- Repeat to make another such layer of tomato, eggplant and cheddar cheese. The last such layer should be of tomato.
- Cover with aluminium foil and bake in oven for 45 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, mix together parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, 1/2 tsp pepper powder and 3 tsp oil.
- After 45 minutes, remove the gratin out of the oven. Put a layer of the parmesan-bread crumbs mixture on top of it and bake for another 20 minutes uncovered. Serve hot.
Regular readers of our blog would be knowing how much I try experimenting with different cuisines. Trying out recipes from cuisines I have tried during our travel is something which I love doing. I am sure you would enjoy trying out some such recipes which are posted on this blog: Sali Chicken (Parsi Chicken Curry), Rosti, Bruschetta which tomato and basil,Chicken Paprikash
Eggplant Gratin
- Eggplants: 2 big
- Onion: 2 medium chopped
- Tomatoes: 5-6 large chopped
- Capsicum: 1 medium finely chopped
- Garlic: 3 cloves finely chopped
- Dried Oregano: 1 tsp
- Dried Basil: 1 tsp
- Pepper Powder: 1 tsp
- Cheddar Cheese: 2 cups grated
- Parmesan Cheese: 1 cup grated
- Bread Crumbs: ½ cup
- Olive oil: ¼ cup
- Salt: to taste
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking tray with olive oil.
- Cut the eggplant into circular slices of ½ inch thickness.
- Apply olive oil to eggplant slices and place on baking tray.
- Bake the eggplant for 20 minutes turning in between.
- Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add onion and garlic and stir fry till translucent.
- Add capsicum and stir fry for 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and stir fry till soft.
- Add oregano, basil, ½ tsp pepper powder and salt to taste. Mix well.
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking bowl.
- Add a layer of tomato mixture followed by a layer of eggplants. Add a layer of cheddar cheese on top ( around 1 cup).
- Repeat to make another such layer of tomato, eggplant and cheddar cheese. The last such layer should be of tomato.
- Cover with aluminium foil and bake in oven for 45 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, mix together parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, ½ tsp pepper powder and 3 tsp oil.
- After 45 minutes, remove the gratin out of the oven. Put a layer of the parmesan-bread crumbs mixture on top of it and bake for another 20 minutes uncovered. Serve hot.
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