Re: [gardeners] Eggplant Grinder

Carol J. Bova (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 10 Jul 2001 22:27:23 -0700

At 04:41 PM 7/10/2001 -0700, you wrote:
A sandwich? I never heard of such a thing. Are they anything like subs
or heroes?

In Philly, they usually called them hoagies, but subs and grinders were 
also used. I remembered grinders being used to refer to one that's baked or 
heated after assembly, like meatball, sausage or eggplant, but I see it's 
also used for cold ones now too.

Eggplant parmigiana was typical. Fried eggplant slices, thick pizza sauce, 
mozzarella,  parmigiana on a long Italian roll, baked til the mozzarella 
melted and everything was hot.

We used to take fried eggplant sandwiches when we went fishing in Delaware 
Bay when I was a kid. Just fried ep slices on a fresh Italian roll.
Assembled hot, packed in a basket with some cappicolla  sandwiches and 
eaten out on the boat.

We would peel and slice an eggplant -- about 3/8 of an inch thick, salt 
lightly, stack slices in a glass bowl, and put a heavy weight on top and 
let sit for the bitter juices to seep out for 1/2 hour or so. Then rinse 
off the salt and bitter stuff with cold water, dry on paper towels. Dip in 
flour, then beaten egg with a pinch of salt, then into bread crumbs.  After 
the whole batch is breaded, you fry til golden in olive or other vegetable 
oil. Drain off excess oil on paper towels. Good hot, good cold, can be 
frozen for future use.

Carol
Sunland, CA  formerly from Philly