Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce (红烧茄子)


Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce

Eggplant is a very tricky vegetable to cook. If you don’t season it properly, it will taste bitter or extremely plain. If you use too little oil, the texture will be mushy and create an awful mouthfeel. If you use too much oil, the eggplant might turn soggy and greasy.

If you don’t like cooking eggplant at home, you probably have some of the worries below:

  • Eggplant is quite time consuming to cook, compared to the average vegetable.
  • You’ll end up eating more calories without getting an impressive flavor.

That is why I’m posting this Chinese eggplant recipe today, to help you to create a wonderful eggplant dish nearly effortlessly.

This recipe offers the simplest way to cook a great eggplant dish without using too much oil, and avoids soggy and plain eggplant with the minimum needed cooking time.

Homemade Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce

How to make the perfect eggplant dish

The secret to getting perfect Chinese style eggplant involves two things.

  1. You have to prepare the eggplant properly before cooking in order to get the right texture.
  2. You need to make a sauce that is flavorful enough.

To prepare the eggplant, there are two ways to do it.

Before introducing the first method, I want to thank my friend Steve S. He taught me this method quite a long time ago, to prevent the eggplant from absorbing oil.

The method is:

  1. Spread the sliced eggplant on a towel.
  2. Sprinkle Kosher salt on both surfaces of the sliced eggplant.
  3. Allow to rest for 45-60 minutes.
  4. Pat each surface dry.
  5. Do not rinse the eggplant.

The second way is:

  1. Place the eggplant in a large bowl and add water to cover.
  2. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, mix well.
  3. Place a pot lid on top to keep the eggplant under water for 15 minutes.
  4. Drain and pat dry

The second method requires a bit more effort, but it saves a bit of time. Both ways yield great results.


go to the next page click here

20 seconds remaining...

Previous Post Next Post