Prep: 7

Cook: 7

Total: 14

Servings: 4 people

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Asian fusion

Label: Eggplant

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Connie’s notes

A truly versatile dish that I like to serve as an accompaniment to a meat, chicken or seafood main dish. The saltiness of the soy sauce and the heat of the gochujang balance the natural sweetness of Asian eggplants.

Umami

If you’re thinking that there’s nothing extraordinary about the salty-spicy flavor combo, consider this: both soy sauce and gochujang are fermented seasonings. Soy sauce isn’t just salty; it’s umami salty. Gochujang, made with chilies and starches that include glutinous rice, isn’t just hot; it is also sweet and savory. Imagine all that nuance in the salty-spicy combo.

What is Asian eggplant?

It is often referred to as Chinese eggplant. Long and narrow, its shape is similar to cucumber. The purple skin is thin and perfectly edible.

Unlike larger cultivars which are bitter, the flesh of Asian eggplant is sweet. Hence, there is really no need to toss them in salt and squeeze out the water that gets drawn out. Skipping the salting and squeezing cuts down the prep time. Just cut off and discard the top, slice the eggplant and cook.

Two-part cooking

In this recipe, they key is even cooking. So, you’ll need to use a frying pan large enough to allow you to spread the eggplant slices in a single layer for the first part of the cooking. If your frying pan is small too accommodate all of them, do the frying in batches.

Since I’ve already referred to “the first part of the cooking”, as you may have guessed, there is a second part. The first part is searing the eggplant slices just until softened and the second is adding the seasonings and spices, and allowing the eggplant slices to finish cooking in the meagre liquid and the steam that builds in the pan.

To sear the eggplant slices, they are shallow fried in sesame seed oil which has a bold flavor and aroma. If you’re not Asian and you find sesame seed oil too overwhelming, you may use some other neutral-tasting oil and just drizzle a little sesame seed oil over the cooked dish.

Ingredients

4 Asian eggplants
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons gochujang
¼ cup chopped shallots
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds to garnish
2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions to garnish

Instructions

Cut off the tops of the eggplants and discard. Cut each eggplant vertically into halves then cut each half into half-inch slices.
Heat the sesame seed oil in a non-stick frying pan.
Spread the eggplant slices in the hot oil so that they are in a single layer. Cook over high heat for a minute then flip them over.
Turn down the heat to medium. Add the soy sauce, gochujang, shallots and garlic. Toss well. Cook until the mixture is almost dry and the eggplants are cooked through.
Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and sliced scallions over the eggplants before serving.