Crispy Eggplant Cordon Bleu

Ingredients

2 eggplants

8 slices of ham

8 slices of cheese

16 sage leaves (optional)

1 ½ cups flour

3 eggs

1 ½ cups (Panko) bread crumbs

oil for frying

a few cherry tomatoes, lettuce and and balsamic dressing to serve

Wash and peel eggplants and slice into 16 even thin slices about 8 mm each . Use only the bigger rounds, keep the rest for a different dish. Sprinkle slices with salt, then put in a colander stacked on top of each other and weigh down for about 30 minutes to draw out the moisture.

Pad the eggplant slices dry with a clean tea towel.

cut the ham and cheese slices into rounds- you can use a can and a knife if you don’t have a cookie cutter. Put one slice of ham, one slice of cheese and 2 sage leaves between two eggplant slices until you have 8 ”sandwiches”.

Dip these eggplant sandwiches into flour,

beaten eggs

and bread crumbs

Deep fry the sandwiches until golden.

Transfer to a paper towel, then serve with

the lettuce and tomatoes.

YUM

Makes 8, serves 2