Eggplant Sandwiches (Patreon)

I don’t often talk about cooking here, as much as I love it. When I began doing a food podcast, I subconsciously started saving all of my stories and dinner successes for recording so I wouldn’t document them repeatedly.

I always do a lot of cooking, but lately, I’ve been messing around in the kitchen every day. It’s a great way to blow off steam and get the stress out after work. Yesterday I craved an eggplant sandwich, so I decided to make one my usual way: overcomplicated. I sliced and purged the eggplant to remove the bitterness. If you don’t know how to do that, it’s easy and makes a huge difference. Simply slice and salt the eggplant and let it sit on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes. You’ll notice a bunch of moisture has formed on the slices. Rinse the slices and pat dry before cooking! I roasted garlic and caramelized onions for an hour. After cooling, the roasted garlic and onions were mashed with a bit of mayo to make a roasted allium spread for the sandwiches. Then I fired up the grill. I charred two big red peppers and put on a big foil packet of potatoes. After cooling and peeling the peppers I sliced them thinly. Then I grilled the eggplant using olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and a clove of grated garlic. After toasting the buns it was time to put it all together. It was put together as follows - bottom bun, allium spread, eggplant, julienned roasted red peppers, provolone cheese, a ton of arugula I had dressed with a bit of lemon, salt, and pepper, then more spread, and finally the top of the bun. It was worth it!

-Ian