October 13, 2014 Eggplant in Garlic Sauce

Today we picked the three remaining ichiban eggplants in our garden and combined them with the one we picked last week.  

We decided to make our favorite Chinese eggplant dish, Eggplant in Garlic Sauce from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking.   Here is the recipe:

The author, Eileen Yin Fei Lo, cooks with a style that adds fragrance to the food by adding small amounts of rice cooking wine to many recipes, rather than overpowering them with larger amounts of flavorings. 

Eggplant with Garlic Sauce.

You first make the Sauce

1 Tbsp. double dark soy sauce

2 tsp. Oyster Sauce

1 tsp. white rice wine vinegar

½ tsp. Shaoxing wine

½ tsp. pepper flakes from hot oil (we reduce this to avoid making the dish too spicy)

½ tsp. of cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. of chicken stock

Then I minced 2 Tbsps. of fresh garlic

I then julienned about 1 lb. of boneless Pork sirloin into 1½ inch strips

Then I sliced the large Chinese Eggplant into three inch by 1/4 inch strips (about two pounds) while Suzette made the sauce. 

Then Suzette sautéed the eggplant strips until tender in heated peanut oil.  The recipe calls for deep frying the eggplant strips in 4 cups of peanut oil, but we never use more than ½ cup oil.

After Suzette had stir fried the eggplant, she stir fried the garlic and then added the pork.  Then she returned the eggplants to the wok and stir fried the eggplant with the meat for a minute and then made a well in the middle of the ingredients and added the sauce and cooked the eggplant mixture for a minute or two. 

I had boiled a cup of rice.

We ate the dish with Sam Adams Octoberfest beers for a lovely dinner.  The PPIs made a wonderful lunch two days later.

I cannot tell you how wonderful the dish was with the fresh eggplants.  The eggplant and the dish had a creamy texture.

Bon Appétit