The Chinese try a variety of methods to cook eggplant because its thick flesh and it is easy to absorb the taste of other dishes. From stir-fried eggplant, steamed eggplant, grilled eggplant, deep-fried eggplant, to eggplant salad, you can get different flavors from different dishes. Today‘s stir-fried eggplant with soybean paste which belongs to stir-frying eggplant dishes is common on the dinner table of Chinese northerners, because soybean paste is a northern specialty.
There are many kinds of eggplants, and the one I often use to cook is the local long, purple-skinned eggplant. Some people who don’t like the peels of eggplant remove them when cooking, I usually keep them. Eggplants that are peeled or cut into pieces are easy to oxidize and turn black, so cook them as soon as possible after preparation.
Eggplant is a vegetable that easily absorbs oil. Chinese people often say that if you make eggplant, no amount of oil is enough. Therefore, it is best to marinate it with salt before stir-frying, or coat it with starch before deep-frying. The eggplant after these treatments is much healthier.
We all know that garlic is the best seasoning for eggplant. Eggplant without garlic is not perfect. The time to add garlic is also particular, preferably one or two minutes before turning off the heat. Soybean paste in this recipe I choosed is bottled and slightly sweet. All kinds of soybean paste can be used to make this dish, as long as you like. If it’s just a salty soybean paste, you can add less or no salt.
Which staple food to pair with this dish
I want to say that all the eggplant recipes are suitable for accompaniment with rice. The juicy eggplant is mixed in the rice, and the flavor is doubled.
Note:
This eggplant with soybean paste has a deep-frying step. The oil temperature should be above 180 degrees Celsius. If the oil temperature is low, the eggplant will inhale too much oil and become unpalatable. The oil temperature should not be too high. If the oil temperature is too high, the eggplant will become dark and bitter.
How to judge
If the oil temperature is right, the eggplant surface will quickly turn brown and float on the oil when quickly transfer to a plate before burnning.
Eggplant with Soybean Paste
Equipment
- Wok for stir-frying
- Pot for deep-fried
Ingredients
- 2 eggplant about 500 gram
- 1 cup oil for deep-frying
- For soybean paste sauce
- 1 tablespoon starch
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon white peppercorn powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon soybean paste
- 10 tabelspoon water
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
Instructions
- Remove the eggplant stems, then cut into pieces
- Mixed the starch, light soy sauce, salt, soybean paste, water, chopped garlic well
- Add 1 cup oil to a wok, heat over high-medium heat, deep-frying the eggplant pieces until brown, transfer to a dish
- Add the mixed sauce to a wok, bring to a boil, then add the deep-fried eggplant, mixed well, turn off the fire.
- Serve with rice.
