The Best Fried Eggplant Ever

This is a bit tedious to prepare, and you do have to do it the night before, but I can personally guarantee that every single person that tries this will be blown away. It’s well worth the effort, and it’s also quite simple. The keys are thin-sliced eggplant and a good quality red wine vinegar. Eggplant basically acts like a sponge, so you want it to absorb the oil and the vinegar, but to prevent it from being too oily, they need to be really thin. I’ve done this when I couldn’t get my hands on a mandolin, slicing it as thin as possible by hand, and it does work, but ends up slightly too oily and of course is even more tedious to prepare. The idea here is to fry up paper-thin slices of eggplant till they’re crispy, then macerate them in the vinegar overnight, which will soften them up, evenly distributing a touch of acid throughout. Again, if you do this right, I guarantee this will be a hit. It can work as a little hors d’oeuvre or side dish, but also does extremely well as a condiment on burgers or sandwiches.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 2 eggplants
• Salt
• Red wine vinegar
• Parchment paper

Directions:

Pull the green sections of the eggplant up and rip them off, so nothing of the eggplant is covered, except the very top. Slice of the top and bottom of the eggplant with your knife. Then, using a mandolin, slice the entire eggplant lengthwise. It’s a good idea to get an eggplant that fits your mandolin, so if you’ve got a small one, you’re going to have to get a bunch of smaller eggplants rather than two medium large ones. You don’t have to do it all in advance, you can slice more as you’re frying.

Pour the olive oil into the largest skillet you’ve got until it is about ¾-inch deep. You may need to add more, depending on how much they soak up throughout the process. Turn the heat to high and wait about 45 seconds, then add as many slices of eggplant as you can without crowding them – you want them to be in one layer, so this probably means three or four slices, depending on the size of your eggplant. If you have irregular sizes from the ends, don’t worry about that – as long as they’re thin, you should fry them all. I sometimes do this with two pans going side by side, to make things more efficient (but keep in mind you’ll use double the olive oil this way).

As soon as you’ve added the eggplant, turn down the heat to medium and leave it there. You may have to play with the heat throughout, just to get it right, but once you find the right setting, you can leave it. Eventually, when you add the eggplant, it should be bubbling consistently throughout, but not going crazy. If it immediately starts bubbling and frothing like crazy when you add a raw piece, turn the heat down.

Let the slices fry for a minute or two, keeping an eye on them. When the edges and the middle just start to brown, flip them over with a pair of tongs. Fry on the other side for the same amount of time, until the face of each slice is as evenly browned as possible. You don’t want this to be a deep, chocolaty brown – that’s too far – but just ever so slightly past what you might call golden.

When they’re done, remove the slices to a plate that’s got a few layers of paper towel on them, to drain. Remember to gently shake them off over the pan first, so that you’re not removing undue amounts of oil, but shake too vehemently and you’ll rip the slice, which you don’t want. So find the balance.

Once the batch is on the paper towel, salt them immediately. You want to do this while they’re hot, so the salt is absorbed evenly. You only need a few grains per slice, so don’t over salt and don’t worry about distributing it evenly. Just lightly salt the whole thing.

Add the next batch, and continue this cycle. Meanwhile, prepare a plate or large tray by lining it with parchment paper. When the eggplant on the paper towel has cooled and crisped up a bit (about a minute or two), add it to the parchment paper. Lay each batch next to one another without stacking them up in any way. When the layer is full, open the bottle of red wine vinegar, put your thumb over the top, and turn it upside down. Just by moving your thumb a little bit, allow the vinegar to drip out over the eggplant. You only need about 3 or 4 drops per slice of eggplant – don’t over vinegar it, but make sure every single piece gets a hit. Then cover the whole layer with another piece of parchment paper, pressing down gently so it sticks to the tops of the eggplant slices.

Repeat this process until you’re done, then seal or cover the tray and put in the refrigerator overnight, or minimum 8 hours. You can serve it any way you like – chiffonade of parsley is a good garnish, but unnecessary, and I wouldn’t fuck with it by adding anything else.