Crispy Eggplant
[Originally posted August 5, 2006]
I love getting this at Hunan Manor. I can’t quite get it right, but this is pretty close. If you find a better version let me know!
Don’t skip the purging step. It really helps make them taste better. All the extra water that eggplants hide inside will make this all very watery and the taste will be weak.
Servers 6
Ingredients for marinade
- 3 tablespoons light soy
- 3 tablespoons dry sherry
- salt
- 1 large or 3 small eggplants, 1 inch slices
Remaining Ingredients
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 cup + 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- peanut oil
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons Mirin rice wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 10 dried red chille
- Slice the eggplant into 1 inch thick round pieces.
- Sprinkle salt on the eggplant slices on both sides and let it sit on the wire rack for at least 30 minutes. This process is called purging. It draws water out from the eggplant
- The eggplant should look a little shriveled after 30 minutes. Rinse it off and pat dry. Mix the soy and the sherry together and let the eggplant soak in this for another 30 minutes. With the excess water out of the eggplant, it will soak up the marinade very well.
- Beat the eggs in the bowl and place the 1 cup of cornstarch on the plate. Start heating the oil in the wok
- Add the egg to the eggplant and the dredge the eggplant in the cornstarch. Dredging is just dipping and coating the outside of the eggplant with a thin coating.
- Once the oil is hot (~400oF), start frying in small batches. Fry the eggplant for only 30 seconds and take it out for 10 seconds. Then dip the eggplant in for another 15 seconds. Take it out again for 10 seconds. Finally put the eggplant in for a good minute, until the coating is golden brown. This process makes the coating very crispy and not soggy. Make sure you do this in small batches so that the oil doesn’t cool down too much.
- After all the eggplant pieces are fried up, pour out all but a tablespoon of the oil. Add the chille’s and let them fry up for awhile. The longer you leave them in, the spicier it will get. But don’t let the chille’s burn.
- After 1-2 minutes add the garlic and the eggplant and stir fry for a little bit. Add the chicken broth and let the mixture reduce a little bit.
- Take a little of the hot stock out into a small bowl. Mix in the remaining liquid ingredients to cool it off a bit, then add the remaining cornstarch. Make sure you mix it well so that the lumps are all out. Then add the mixture to the wok. This will thicken up the sauce.
- Cook until it is just a little thinner than you would like, turn off the heat and serve it. As the whole thing cools down, the sauce will thicken further. So don’t cook it until it is at the desired consistency because it will just become a huge congealed mess.