Steves Eggplant Stack

So why don't you get down here and start slicing your eggplant

Okay, okay. Because you're going to make an eggplant dish for us, right? Eggplant stack

And I'm going to take just a little bit of this marinade and put on top of that grilled chicken just to keep those chicken breasts moist

What is an eggplant stack? We take eggplant, we slice it thin, and we bread it, and we fry it

but we put fresh mozzarella, marinated tomato, and more eggplant, and we put arugula on top

Wow, I love arugula. Well, my style of cooking, Paula, is comfort Italian-American comfort food

So I cook like my mother cooked, but I take it to another level with better ingredients

Why don't we salt and pepper this? Okay. And you're going to come down here

and salt your eggplant, right? Yes, ma'am. And why are you going to salt it

Because eggplants sometimes can be a little bitter. Bitter. Right, it can be a little bitter

So you want to put the salt, so you drain those juices out. That's right. Last, I'm going to add in some basil

and you can drain our eggplant in the sink, Steve. Are you ready to make

I'm ready. I'm ready. Eggplant. We're going to do stacked eggplant. Eggplant stacked

Breaded eggplant, fresh mozzarella, marinated tomato, more eggplant. The same thing, then a rudo on top

You had salted your eggplant. You should put a weight on top of it

like a frying pan, something that'll bring the moisture out of the eggplant. Okay. Pat it dry Listen I had heard through a mutual friend of ours that Steve really really does a lot to help the inner city kids 100

And that's wonderful. Thank you. And I also heard that Steve, look how manly, manly

I also heard he has little dogs. Four. What kind of little dogs do you have

Pomeranians. Don't you laugh. I swear I ain't gonna laugh. What do you want me with a pit bull

I love my babies. And, and, and. Do you walk them? I walk them

I play with them. And ain't nobody got guts to, uh. Unconditional love

Yes. No matter how bad your day is. They're there. They don't want nothing from you

No. Just want, just want love. That's it. No, that's it. Well, let's get back to this eggplant, Steve

I'm going to hand this to you. Okay. I want to bring it to the, I want you to put some flour. We're going to do a breading

Okay. Flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Okay, so flour in this one. Put a little salt and pepper in there

Okie dokie. Now you're going to put some egg mixture. All right, now what are we going to mix with these eggs

More salt and pepper. Yes, ma'am, a little bit. You want to season that as we're going. All right, you know, I see you got some Parmesan cheese for that, too

You ready? We got some breadcrumb. Now this is store-bought breadcrumb. We need some parsley, right

Yes, we always need our veggies. Okay, we're going to do a rough chop. All right, are we going to go one, two, three

I'm going to put a little parsley in there. Okay Get a little vegetable oil Okay You can use olive oil

We're gonna fry this, right? Yeah. And I cut these pretty thin. So you just wanna get a nice color one

You figure, what, two, three minutes? Yeah. Put it on the paper towel. Okay. And then we'll stack this

That sounds great. So I'm gonna take these tomatoes. We're gonna slice these

Ooh, look, Steve. My mother would make these. She'd put 15 of them on a plate

By the time dinner came, there'd be three left. That's the way I was with fried green tomatoes and lay-so cakes

So you'd pop them whole, right? I'd put them, yeah, I'd put them on the platter, and I'd turn around, and my children would make trips through the kitchen

These are looking good, so why don't you start slicing the mozzarella

Are you ready? I'm ready. Here's a tomato. You want to put a little salt and pepper? Okay

Garlic powder. You some vasana gold? Okay, some vasana gold. You know, when I was a kid and I couldn't afford cologne

I said, come here, honey. You're coming with me. They follow me everywhere. Come on

And I've got a little oil here, Steve. I'll take a little bit of kumasi kiam

You know what kumasi kiam is? Kumasi kiam, yeah. That's when you don't know something. You go, what a kumasi kiam

Kumasi kiam. Kumasi kiam, kumasi kiam. Come on, that's a little bit of balsamic

That's not. I love, whoa. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Get a piece of mozzarella

Give me another. All right, now what? Another. Another eggplant. Why you keep talking like that

I don know Give him another piece of tomato Somebody in this room is making me talk like that A little salt a little pepper a little garlic powder A little garlic powder A little vasana gore A little vasana gore

Tell me I don't even look beautiful just like that. Yes. A little basil. A little basil

Put another piece of mozzarella. Put another eggplant on top of that. Great time of day

This is going to be hard to eat. No, watch. Get yourself a little bit of arugula

Put a little bit of salt. A little bit of pepper. A little bit of garlic. We're going to finish it up

And I want you to put this on top. On top? I'm swallowing hard

Come on, baby girl. Put a little bit on top. Take that. I'm going to take a little bit of this

All right, now, should we get a clean plate? No, watch, watch. Well, that looks terrific

It does. It does. All right, so tell me what you think about this. If I want a chicken parm and I can't have the breading

I'm in the same family right here. Oh, the hot pepper. I brought that up

You don't taste that? Yes, I do. Wow. Seriously, where's the camera

That mean good. Because. All right, this is what I want to taste

All right, is there a right way to eat this? No, no, no, just cut it. And if it falls apart, if it falls apart

you just pick up the eighth pan, tomato, and the mozzarella, and the arugula. Okay

A little crispy, a little tomato, right? A little balsamic. Simple yet delicious

This is delicious, y'all