Recipe: Eggplant Saute with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Today's recipe is a Winner! No, really. As a stay-at-home dad one of my "jobs" is to provide meals for my wife who works from home.

 

Emptying the fridge of anything I could find, I created this dish for Tammy's lunch.  She not only enjoyed it  but encouraged me to enter  my first ever cooking competition  (October 2010) With this recipe I won the Chef's Choice Award and a new career was launched. Thank you Tamian for your encouragement.

 

What makes this dish a winner is its blend and balance of savory, sweet, salty and sour. If you are not an eggplant fan, substitute tofu. The texture will be very similar and the tofu will also caramelize much the same way. Here is the blueprint for success.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 medium eggplant

Milk

2 eggs

fresh herbs or Italian seasoning blend

1 package of cherry tomatoes - halved

1 packaged Laura Channel goat milk cheese

Balsamic vinegar

Extra Virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Black pepper

 

Directions:

 

Begin by cutting eggplant into 1 inch pieces while heating a medium saute pan. In a small bowl beat egg and milk to create an eggwash to hold breadcrumbs to eggplant. Lightly cover eggplant in bread crumbs (either fresh with herbs or store bought brand).

 

Place eggplant and a tablespoon of olive oil into pan and saute until caramelized-light brown. Add more oil to pan if necessary being careful not over saturate the eggplant or burn it. Drain excess oil from eggplant and place on serving plate.

 

Next add cherry tomato halves. Crumble goat cheese over tomatoes and top with balsamic vinegar.

 

Salt and pepper to taste.