Eggplant Gratin in a Dutch Oven
Dried eggplant, canned tomato, and parmesan under a crust of breadcrumbs. A car-camping side dish that pretends it isn't one.
- calories
- 220
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 63
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dried eggplant cubes | 2 cups | dehydrated at home, half-inch dice |
|---|---|---|
| Canned peeled tomatoes | 14 oz can | crush by hand in the pot |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | keeps a week out of the cooler in cool weather |
| Garlic | 1 clove | whole heads travel fine |
| Dried onion, carrot, and celery | 1/3 cup total | |
| Dry white wine | 1/4 cup | a small bottle, or skip it |
| Panko breadcrumbs | 3/4 cup | toasted at home in oil |
| Grated parmesan | 1/2 cup | the hard shelf-stable kind |
| Salt, black pepper, chili flakes | to taste | |
| Dried basil or mint | 1 tsp |
Method
- Pour 400 ml of boiling water over the dried eggplant and the onion, carrot, and celery in the Dutch oven. Lid on, off the heat, 15 minutes. The eggplant should go from leathery to soft.
- Drain off whatever water is left. Set the pot over coals or a low flame, melt the butter, and add the minced garlic for a minute.
- Add the wine and let it cook off. Crush in the tomatoes, add salt, pepper, chili flakes, and the dried herbs. Simmer 10 minutes until it stops running.
- Stir half the parmesan into the tomato and eggplant. Level the top.
- Scatter the rest of the parmesan and all the panko over the surface. Lid on, coals on the lid, roughly 10 minutes until the top is set and browning.
- Let it sit five minutes off the heat. It slices better warm than hot.
Fresh eggplant is mostly water, which is why the original recipe blanches it before baking. Dehydrating does the same job in reverse: the cell structure is already broken down, so rehydrating in salted boiling water gets you soft cubes without a pot of grey liquid to pour off later. That also cuts the weight by about eighty percent.
The rest is a Dutch oven doing what an oven does. Coals on the lid brown the crumb topping from above while the tomato reduces underneath. Toast the panko at home in oil, because a lid full of coals browns unevenly and pre-toasted crumbs give you a margin. Parmesan is the one dairy item that survives out of a cooler; nothing here needs a fridge except the butter, and only in heat.
Packing
Dry eggplant and mirepoix go in one bag, panko and parmesan in another so the crumbs stay dry. The tomato can is the heavy part, which is why this is a car-camping recipe.
Variations
- Skip the wine and use a splash of vinegar at the end instead.
- Crushed crackers or puffed rice replace the panko if you need it gluten-free.
- A tin of anchovies melted into the butter turns the sauce savory, but drops the vegetarian tag.
https://foragerchef.com/eggplant-baked-with-tomato-and-wild-herbs