Making friends with eggplant

Okay, so I am a self-proclaimed eggplant hater. I have always had something against it. All the eggplant I have ever tried has been mushy, bitter and too gross to look at, much less put in my mouth. The other day I decided to try and make eggplant my friend. I definitely had my doubts. Since I was already making pasta for dinner (I found a source for fresh pasta at the Strathcona Farmer's Market), I wanted to keep with the Italian theme. I remembered an old article from "Cook's Illustrated" that examined the best way to make Eggplant Parmesan so I dug it out of my pile of magazines and began my research. There are so many ways of making it: flouring, battering, deep frying, baking... but they all have one thing in common: salting the eggplant for at least 20 minutes before hand to tone down the bitter flavour and pull out some of the excess moisture. I opted to cut some 1/2 inch slices of a regular eggplant and give them a flour, egg, breadcrumb coating. I used some whole grain bread and blitzed it in the food processor until it had a panko-like texture, and added some freshly grated Parmesan, salt, pepper and cayenne for kick. I seared them in veg oil on high heat until they browned, about one minute a side, and put them on a rack to finish cooking in the oven for another 15 minutes. The final result was surprisingly good. They were super crispy and spicy on the outside and amazingly light and fluffy on the inside. Admittedly they tasted more like the crust than the eggplant itself, but I'm not complaining. Hugh took the leftovers to work the next day and said he preferred them because they were still crispy but a little more dense and filling. I will certainly be trying this dish again.