Making Eggplant au Gratin — Photos

It has been several months since I’ve done an entry on a recipe from my collection of recipes, mostly just because last winter and spring, I’d run through most of the recipes that I regularly make and which at the time I had considered to be of “sufficient” note to highlight here, save for the recipe which is the subject of this post (but yes, there is a small number more which may eventually be featured!) As such, many of my recipes from my collection of recipes have since been made at least once, and in many cases, several times, over the past few months.

Over the past couple of weeks alone, I did a lot of cooking at the cottage while on holidays, making:

Yes, that’s a lot of potatoes, ground beef, chicken, onions, carrots, eggs, flour, cheese, olive oil, and other secondary ingredients prepared, as well as beer consumed, during the multiple cooking sessions! And, yes, this is how I like to spend winter holidays at the cottage!

Note that this recipe is vegetarian of the lacto-vegetarian variety (basically, meatless) if the tomato sauce used does not contain meat.

Making the Eggplant au gratin:

First, a nice beer was taken out — Brune d’Achouffe, a Belgian brown ale 8,5% alc/vol in a 750mL bottle, brewed under licence from the Brasserie d’Achouffe by Brasseurs RJ in Montréal, Québec.

Beef taken out

Next, the beer was poured into a glass:

Beer poured out

… and of course, right away I had to do a bit of quality control on the beer:

Yes, this is a good beer!

Now to the cooking of the eggplant au gratin, really, this time:

Ramekins were set out — as it turns out, another ramekin was needed to be added later on:

Ramekins set out

An electric skillet was taken out and plugged in:

Electric skillet taken out

The skillet was turned on

Olive oil was added to the skillet:

Olive oil added to skillet

The olive oil was spread out in the skillet with a plastic spatula / egg flipper:

Olive oil spread out in skillet

A couple of eggplants were taken out:

Eggplants taken out

An eggplant was rinsed with water:

Eggplant rinsed with water

The eggplant was trimmed:

Eggplant trimmed

Coins were sliced off the eggplant:

Coins sliced off eggplant

Slices of eggplant were placed in the hot skillet:

Eggplant slices in skillet

After a few minutes of frying, the slices of eggplant were turned over:

Eggplant slices turned over

The fried slices of eggplant were placed in ramekins:

Eggplant slices placed in ramekins

The rest of the first eggplant was sliced, the resulting eggplant slices fried, and the fried eggplant slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the fried eggplant slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Eggplant equally distributed amongst the ramekins

Half of the zucchinis were taken out:

Zucchini taken out

The zucchinis were rinsed with water:

Zucchinis rinsed with water

The zucchinis were trimmed:

Zucchinis trimmed

In order to quickly slice the zucchinis, a food processor with the slicing blade attachment was taken out:

Food processor with slicing blade taken out

The zucchinis were fed into the running food processor in order to slice them:

Zucchinis fed into food processor
Sliced zucchinis

Zucchini slices were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil:

Zucchini slices frying

The zucchini slices were turned over:

Frying zucchini slices turned over

Fried zucchini slices were placed in ramekins:

Fried zucchinis placed in ramekins

The rest of the first half of the zucchini slices were fried:

More zucchinis frying
More zucchinis frying

The rest of the fried zucchini slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the zucchini slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Fried zucchinis placed in ramekins

Onions were taken out:

Onions take out

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

Onions cleaned and trimmed

The onions were sliced in half:

Onions sliced in half

The onions were sliced into thick half coins:

Onion half sliced into thick half coins

The onions were roughly chopped:

Onions roughly chopped

The chopped onions were placed in a bowl:

Chopped onions placed in bowl

About half the chopped onions were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil, and salt was added:

Chopped onions in skillet with more olive oil and salt

The chopped onions were fried:

Chopped onions fried

The fried chopped onions were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Fried chopped onions spread in ramekins

At this point, my beer chalice was empty and needed refiling:

Beer chalice refilled

It was time to repeat the process, and the second eggplant was sliced and fried the same way. When the eggplant slices were placed in the ramekins, the contents were patted down with a fork, in order to get rid of deadspace in the ramekin:

Ramekin contents patted down with a fork

The rest of the steps were repeated with the zucchinis, and the chopped onions, and both were placed in the ramekins in the same order as above, after the second layer of fried eggplant. Note that at this point, another ramekin was added to accommodate what proved to be more ingredients than I originally estimated that I’d had:

Ramekins filled with all fried ingredients

A jar of commercial (meatless) tomato sauce was taken out:

Tomato sauce taken out

The tomato sauce was spread over the ingredients in the ramekins:

Tomato sauce spread over ingredients in the ramekins

A block of mozzarella cheese was taken out:

Mozzarella cheese taken out

Mozzarella cheese was sliced off the block of cheese:

Mozzarella cheese sliced off the block

Cheese slices were placed on top of the ingredients in the ramekins:

Mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of ingredients in the ramekins
Mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of ingredients in the ramekins

Zipper bags were taken out and identified:

Zipper bags taken out and identified

Filled ramekins were individually placed in bags for freezing:

Filled ramekins placed in identified zipper bags

The bags were placed in a freezer (in this case the freezer door) for future eating:

Bagged eggplant au gratin in the freezer

A few days later, an eggplant au gratin was taken out, defrosted, baked, and eaten; of course it was yummy!

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