 Hi everyone, today we're making roasted eggplant. We're gonna leave the skin on, we're gonna roast it in a very high temperature oven, and that's gonna caramelize the exterior of it and just bring out some great flavor, and the inside will be nice and moist and plump and juicy. And it's so simple to do, it takes about 30 minutes to cook, and I've got some tips for you so that you'll get the best results. I'm Rockin' Robin, and I'm gonna show you how to do it right after our chef joke. All right, I like to start off with a chef joke. There'll be another one a little bit later, so hang around for that. All right, so what do you call a huge henhouse? An eggplant. When you pick out an eggplant at the store, you're looking for one with a nice, smooth skin, of course, and you want it to have a little give to it, so when you push your hand into it, it kinda gives a little bit, but not too much, and you wanna make sure that it feels kind of heavy for its size. Now, if it doesn't, if it feels really light, it's probably very dry inside and you really don't want that. Like I mentioned earlier, we're gonna leave the skin on our eggplant. Now, some people think that that is the bitter part of it, but it really isn't because nowadays when they grow these, they have bred them so that they're not as bitter, and that shouldn't be a problem, especially when we cook it in the oven and roast it at a high temperature like I mentioned. That's gonna sweeten things up and really just make them taste great. So we're gonna leave the skin on, and when you cut this, I also wanna mention that when you cut your eggplant, you want to make sure that you leave the chunks big. They should be at least an inch and a quarter thick. That way they're nice and plump. You've got enough because they shrink when they're cooking. So that way they'll have enough material there so that it stays nice and plump, and the skin also provides some structure to it. It helps keep it together, so that's why you don't wanna peel it. Now remember, about an inch thick. Stack the eggplant two or three high and then cut it into very large cubes, about at least one inch. Then you wanna place your eggplant into a bowl. Now my hands are clean. So I'd like to drizzle plenty of olive oil in or on top and I'm just gonna use my hands to start tossing it just because I like it better. You can use a spatula or a spoon if you want. You wanna add a little bit of salt to that. The olive oil tends to really absorb into the eggplant, you'll notice. And it doesn't look like it's very oily at all. So I just drizzle a little bit in there. I'm also gonna add a little bit of pepper to this. I like to mix it around and then add a little more pepper and a little bit more salt. Now I like to add a little bit of oil to my pan, just a light coating so that it helps not stick. So just rub that in and then we'll toss the eggplant on the pan. Now ideally you wanna spread it out so that each piece is touching the bottom of the pan. That way you'll get more caramelization of those pieces. My oven is preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. We're gonna pop this in the oven and we're gonna check it at 20 minutes, flip it over and then we'll cook it a little longer. Our eggplant is roasting in the oven so it must be time for Chef Joke number two. Here we go. What kind of socks do you need to plant eggplant? Garden hose. Here's our eggplant all roasted up, 20 minutes, then I flipped it and then I put it back in for another 10. And what you want is that caramelized, almost burnt exterior. Use a metal scraper if you have one or a spatula like this and try and scrape up the bottom so that you get the crispy edge to come with the rest of the eggplant. So give it a good scrape like that. Sometimes it sticks. You could use parchment paper. It still sticks a little bit to the parchment paper as well but this is amazing. That has definitely got the crispy edge on it. It's caramelized, it's got some sweetness to it. It's own natural sweetness that, you know, there's no bitterness at all. And the inside is creamy. It's delicious guys. So if you love eggplant, you're gonna wanna check out another recipe of mine, baked eggplant, which is much healthier. It's coated with panko breadcrumbs, crunchy on the outside, nice and tender on the inside. Check it out. I'll leave a link for you right over here. Click that, go check that one out. Make it, it is one of my most popular recipes on my channel and I think you're gonna love it. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel, hit the notification bell and leave me a comment. And don't forget to hit the old like button for me that helps more people see my videos and enjoy the recipes. Thanks again, we'll see you next time.