Peeled eggplants are cubed, coated in batter, deep fried then braised in sweet sour sauce that thickens naturally as it reduces.
Cook’s notes
The sauce contains no starch. The starch is in the batter that coats each piece of eggplant. When that starch comes in contact with the sauce, the liquid thickens are it reduces.
My best tips for cooking this dish:
- Use Asian eggplants. They’re sweeter and creamier.
- Use lots of oil to fry the eggplants in. Give them a chance to swim and float and not get stuck to one another.
- Use two frying pans — one to fry the eggplants in and another to braise them in the sauce.
Sweet sour eggplants
Ingredients
- 3 eggplants (Asian variety, please!)
- 1 medium egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pepper
- 6 tablespoons potato starch (you may need more if your eggplants are extra large)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 3 to 4 cups cooking oil
Sweet sour sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- â…“ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
Instructions
- Peel the eggplants and cut into bite-sized cubes.
- Place the cubed eggplants in a miing bowl and add the egg, salt, pepper, potato starch and baking powder. Toss until the eggplant cubes are coated in a slightly wet batter.
- Heat the cooking oil until fine wisps of smoke flat on the surface.
- Slide the battered eggplant cubes into the hot oil. Stir after 10 to 15 seconds to separate the pieces. Fry, stirring occasionally, until the batter turns crisp.
- While the eggplants fry, mix together the ingredients for the sauce and heat in another frying pan until boiling gently.
- Scoop out the eggplants and dump into the sauce. Toss to coat each piece with sauce. Leave to braise over medium-low heat, tossing occasionally, until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
- Serve the sweet sour eggplants immediately.
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