The Grand Lux Café is a sister to the Cheesecake Factory, totally different menu, but a huge menu just like the Cheesecake Factory.
As of this writing (April 2023), The Cheesecake Factory operates fourteen Grand Lux Cafe restaurants located in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
I love to just have appetizers there, and one of my favorites is the eggplant fritters.
They are crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside with a pronounced eggplant flavor, served over a tomato sauce, perhaps marinara, and drizzled with a basil oil or perhaps pesto.
That’s what I remember, but here is the menu listing. Also a photo from the restaurant in Houston, but photos may vary.
The menu says, eggplant, mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan, (but I’ll use Parmigiano Reggiano).
Also, we must make sure that the eggplant is the dominant flavor, or it is just going to taste like some other fried thing. Ever notice how sometimes, fried things all taste alike?
They call this thing a fritter, but it is coated on the outside with bread crumbs, so it must be molded somehow. That does not mean that it’s not a fritter, but I suspect it is more of a croquette.
I could be totally wrong, but what I created, looks, tastes, and feels a lot like the eggplant fritters I remember at the Grand Lux in Paramus, NJ.
To make these fritters, we are going to need a few things in advance:
· Marinara Sauce
· Basil oil or pesto
· A Béchamel
You can use a store bought marinara and or pesto, or you can make your own, I’ve got you covered.
But let’s talk a bit about the béchamel. Usually we use a béchamel as a sauce or component of a sauce, but today we are using it as a binding agent, so it will be a bit thicker and not seasoned the same way as usual.
For the fritters:
1 eggplant about 1 LB after peeling (mine was 1 LB 2 ¾ oz before peeling)
6 oz béchamel
2 oz shredded mozzarella
1 oz shredded fontina
1 oz shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
For Frying:
2 Eggs beaten
Flour for dusting
A mixture of Panko Bread and Italian Crumbs
Dice the eggplant and pan fry it in 1 tbs olive oil. Season very lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Less than 1/8 of a teaspoon of each.
After a few minutes, the eggplant should be partially cooked, olive green, and should have shrunk. Taste it to see if it is slightly al dente and has a pronounced eggplant flavor. You should have lost about 3 to 4 oz of water.
Let the eggplant cool and then mix it with the béchamel and the cheeses
Mold the eggplant mixture into patties. I did 2 oz patties which, I think were a bit too large as compared to the restaurant. But I actually had 10 patties. Maybe I should have had 15 patties.
Chill the patties for about an hour so they firm up for the next step.
Dust the patties in flour.
Dip them in an egg wash and then coat them with the bread crumbs. Make sure you coat the edges as well.
Fry them in about ½ inch of olive oil until golden on each side, about 2 – 3 minutes per side
Serve over some marinara. Drizzle some basil oil around. Garnish with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and maybe some basil chiffonade
Kiss yourself for making deliciousness.
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