Cooking with Mom: Kalandrakas

With the lockdown in full effect, I decided to ask my mom to teach me a few recipes. And she taught me a dish called, Kalandrakas. Literally, this Cebuano word means miscellaneous or multi-faceted. And this is due to the fact that it was originally made up of whatever miscellaneous vegetable one had lying around. But despite its name, it was so good! I think I'll add this to my regular condo menu.

Kalandrakas
Ingredients:
- 2 kilos of eggplant
- 1 kilo of tomatoes
- 2 bulbs of white onion
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- grated cheese for topping
For the sauce:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 chicken cube
- 2 cups water

Procedure:

Start by peeling the eggplants. 🍆 Then cut it slanting so we have a bit of surface area.
Then slice the tomatoes and the onions. Round slices.

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Dip the eggplant cuts in the egg, then cover it with the flour.
Fry the eggplants.

Now, let's make the white sauce. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and stir until the flour is quite toasted. You can tell it's okay if it starts to smell like polvoron.
Add in the milk, chicken cube and water. Put in one cup of water first, then add the rest slowly. You don't want it too thick, but you also don't want it too thin. Adjust accordingly.

Arrange the eggplants in the bottom of a deep serving dish. That's layer 1. Layer 2 would be your tomatoes, and layer 3 would be your onions. Adjust the amount of onions to your taste. I first tried using 3 bulbs of onion. That was too much. 2 bulbs was perfect for me.

Pour white sauce.

Do another round of eggplants, tomatoes and onions.
Pour the rest of the white sauce.
Add grated cheese on top. I suggest mixing mozzarella with another cheese with a stronger taste, like Edam. In my case, I only have cheezee and vegan mozzarella at this time. And everything's closed so I'll make do with this.