I got some lovely, squirly Asian eggplant from a farmer’s stall close to a friend’s house, with the hopes that I could learn how to make one of my favorite restaurant dishes.
Whenever I’m at the San Diego restaurant Spicy City, I always make sure the group orders garlic eggplant — so many of us love the dish it’s usually pretty easy to convince the group to get it 🙂
The key to making my version is to steam the eggplant before stir-frying it. Eggplant really soaks up oil, so if you stir fry raw eggplant you’ll soon find yourself adding more and more oil to the dish. A lot of restaurants cook this dish by actually deep frying the eggplant (aaah!). No wonder it tastes so good! But this version gives you the taste without all the oil. I used a typical western vegetable steamer basket and it couldn’t have been easier.
I had some leftovers and he next day made it into one of my personal favorite dishes – fried rice! Mmm. Super easy, I will post a flexible recipe for fried rice sometime soon.
Ingredients
- 4 medium Asian eggplants (about 1-1/4 lb)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (reduce slightly if not using reduced-sodium soy sauce)
- 2 Tbsp Chinkiang vinegar (you can use balsamic in a pinch)
- 2 Tbsp Shao Hsing rice wine (my mom likes dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup minced garlic
- 1/4 cup minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 cup finely minced scallions
Directions
- Prepare eggplant: cut into 2-inch sections, then halve each section lengthwise. Cut each half lengthwise into thirds to make sticks.
- Prepare sauce: in a small bowl combine soy sauce, vinegar, rice wine, sugar, salt, and pepper flakes. Set aside.
- Steam the eggplant: using a vegetable steamer rack or in your wok. This will take about 6 minutes, check for tenderness with a fork.
- Fry together: heat the wok/pan over high heat until very hot. Add vegetable oil, garlic and ginger, and stir-fry 10 seconds until fragrant. Add the cooked eggplant and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Stir the sauce, add it to the wok, and stir-fry about a minute. Drizzle on the sesame oil and scallions, toss and serve!
I’m now motivated to try cooking eggplant again! The first few times I tried it, I had not-ripe-enough, non-asian eggplants.