Saturday, September 17, 2011

Stir Fried Eggplant in Spicy Chilli Sauce

Stir Fried Eggplant in Spicy Chili Sauce
Eggplant is my all-time favorite vegetable. There are variety of ways to cook them. You could make smoked eggplant salad, fried eggplant, eggplant gravy, mashed eggplant curry (North Indian Baigan Bartha) and this one is Chinese style. Even though I’ve tried similar style eggplant in Singapore Chinese vegetarian restaurant; I never bothered to try it at home.

But once I saw it demonstrated by Kylie kwong in Masterchef Australia, I immediately noted it down and tried it no sooner I got all the ingredients. We can call it Ami’s twisted version, because I made small modifications in steps as well as ingredients. My DH’s reaction to this dish is “Superb”. Eggplant’s taste is relatively bland that’s why it easily blends with any type to spices or gravy. Fried eggplant has a mild sweetness and when it is mixed with a spicy hot and sour sauce, eggplant absorbs and blends well with this aromatic tangy sauce. It’s a “must try” for all eggplant lovers like me.
Stir Fried Eggplant in Spicy Chili Sauce
How often do you get inspired by cooking shows? I always do. Some of my favorite chefs on TV are Michael Smith, Jamie Oliver, Chef Wan (Malaysian), Anna Olson, Nigella Lawson and Laura Calder. These are some of the other celebrity chef inspired recipe creations in my kitchen.


Print Recipe here
Ingredients
Serves 4-6

2 Large Eggplants
Salt to taste
100ml vegetable oil
1 Tbsp chili flakes
2 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar

To make the sauce
Handful of coriander leaves
5 fresh red chilies
1 Onion
3 garlic cloves
1 large tomato
Blend all of the above ingredients using food processor

Method


First cut eggplant into thin long strips then into cube size pieces. 
Second cut thin long strips into cube size pieces
Add plenty of salt, mix well; set it aside in a colander for minimum of 30 minutes. You’ll see water dripping from eggplant during this time. 
Eggplant mixed with salt & water dripping from salted eggplant

Wash eggplant and pat them dry, using kitchen towel.
Wash soaked eggplant and pat dry with a kitchen towel
Heat oil in a large non-stick pan and once oil hits smoking point, add eggplant and fry till they are golden brown. Drain eggplant using slotted spoon, set them aside to dry in kitchen towel.
Leave aside stir fried eggplant in kitchen towel
To prepare the sauce, heat remaining oil and fry blended raw ingredients till you get the aroma, and raw smell evaporates. Add soy sauce, chili flakes and vinegar and mix well to create sauce. Turn off the heat and add fried eggplant to this sauce and mix well.

I served it with rice, next time with pittu (Sri Lankan handmade couscous made with red rice flour). You can also serve it with bread, noodles, wrap or roti.
Stir Fried Eggplant in Spicy Chili Sauce

Photography Check some of my clicks in Singapore. It’s new sky line and Sentosa island. Singapore is the most Veg friendly city in Southeast Asia.

15 comments:

  1. This looks really good and I like that it uses minimal ingredients that I already have on hand. If I use Japanese eggplants, how many might I need?

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  2. those are thin long one's right? two is enough for 3-4 persons. Thanks for your feedback

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  3. This is a wonderful eggplant dish, simplw with nice ingredients.

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  4. Thank you it tastes awesome!

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  5. I made this over the weekend. It was so good I almost ate the whole thing by myself . I couldn't find fresh red chilis, so I used dry ones; somewhat rehydrated a bit. I ended up needing more oil though. I think if I would have fried the eggplant in small batches, they would have browned quicker and absorbed less oil. Do you do it in small batches? I tried to do most of it at once. Anyway, thanks so much. I will definitely be making this again in the near future!

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  6. hi There, I'm really glad u like them, use long fresh red chili next time, it's comparatively mild in hot. I've a large wok type non stick pan, so I could easily add 2 eggplant, but if it's more than that I do fry them in batches.

    According to kylie kwong, excess oil is good and spices up your dish.
    Thank you very much for your feedback :)

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  7. Wow beautiful pictures and a gorgeous dish! This looks wonderful.

    I am your newest follower :-)

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  8. Thank you for your encouragement Meghan, It means a lot to me...

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  9. Reminds me of Fuschia Dunlop's Fish-fragrant aubergines :)
    http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/06/04/2010/332921/fish-fragrant-aubergines-by-fuschia-dunlop.htm

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  10. Hi. I just joined your site and love the pictures. You have some fantastic and tasty ideas as well. Curious: Any particular reason why you suggest blending the ingredients raw prior to cooking? Again, love the site and look forward to exploring more through it.

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  11. Ami's Vegetarian DelicaciesNovember 14, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    hi Gary, Tnk u very much for your feedback. Blending ingredients helps to create a tangy spice paste. Mostly north indian recipes calls for blending ingredients and then sauteing it. Also in this case i didn't want to taste anything except eggplant as I'm a big eggplant lover. But also we needed other flavors to spice up the eggplant. So that's the reason i blended everything together to make a spice paste. But you can saute diced pieces of raw ingredients if you like them that way.

    Let me know your feedback after trying them.

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  12. Made this and LOVED it, and I have to say it tastes even better the day after even though it's reheated. I think the sauces soaks into the eggplant even more...

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  13. Can you bake the eggplants instead? Would it give the same taste though? Just being health conscious here :)

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  14. Ami's Vegetarian DelicaciesFebruary 1, 2012 at 11:58 PM

    I have not tried baking, but I have that in mind. you follow all the steps before and finally bake instead of deep frying. I would like to know your feedback after you tried.

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