I told alex last night that If I could stay tan and also be able to put on my sweatpants and a big sweater at night - Thats my ideal weather, but we all know it wont last. So if you want to hold onto summer just a wee bit longer but also serve cozy night in, Here is your dish.
Essentially a tomato sauce with fish sauce and chinese eggplant. Its goopy, a little funky, but umami and comforting in all the best ways and should be made immediately. Looking at the ingredient list it dosent seem like the simplest of dishes, but if you can make a tomato sauce, you can make this - And most of us have these ingredients laying around, maybe not the fish sauce, but there is no better time to start than right now! I ate this with a heaping bowl of buttery hot rice, topped with green onions and kimchi-ed some cucumbers in a cheater way, I'll include the recipe in another post.
Notes
Any eggplant would work well, I just happen to have chinese eggplant. If opting for an italian eggplant- Cut in small chunks
Nishiki rice is superior- Youre welcome. Make rice however you make rice, people are sensitive about it. I make sure I have about a nails worth of water above the rice, and I rinse it thuroughly before hand until the water runs somewhat clear.
You should get a rice cooker
Soaking your cut eggplant in some salt for 20 minutes ( totally optional) , then squeezing the water out of your eggplant before cooking will help texturally and decrease the amount of water left in your sauce
Use a cornstarch slurry at the end of cooking while sauce is still on a low simmer to thicken. About a teaspoon of cornstarch and a 1/4 cup water, mix.
Serves 3 comfartably
Ingredients
2-3 small eggplants chunked or one large italian eggplant chunked
1/2 diced onion
1 cayenne or fresh hot pepper minced
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger diced
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
3 large tomatoes diced into large-ish chunks
1 cups rice, rinsed
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
3 table spoons soy sauce
3 scallions diced
olive or a neutral oil
Cornstarch slurry
1 tablespoon conrstarch
2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Soak your chunked eggplant in about a tablespoon of salt and set asdie for 20 minutes. In the meantime heat up a large wok or shallow frying pan with about 2 tablespoons of neutral oil on med-high heat.
( You will notice I do not put a measurement on the oil, at leats in this recipe, its because I use it liberally and to be honest I am not sure)
Once your oil is somewhat hot, add in your onions, hot pepper ( I used a fresh cayenne but any would work), and garlic. Allow this to get aromatic and infuse into our oil, try not to burn the garlic. Stir often. About 2 minutes.
Once aromatic, Add in your tomatoes and lower to medium and let them cook for about 20 minutes keeping it at a nice rolling simmer and allowing some of those juices to evaporate. Salt to taste.
While tomatoes are simmering get a small bowl and make a mixture of your sugar, soysauce, rice wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce ( leaving the other 1/2 for later). Stir and set aside.
Start your rice in your rice cooker, I did 1 cup of rice. The water should cover the rice about a fingernails length.
After yout tomatoes have been simmering for anround 20 minutes and have thickened to create alomost the texture of a tomato sauce, take thhe sauce and put it in a bowl and set aside. In the same pan- Heat up another tablespoon or so of neutral oil, and let it get hot. place the cornstarch into the eggplant bowl and toss the eggplant around in the cornstarch until eggplant is coated, place coated eggplant in the hot frying pan , with heat remaining at medium, and fry for about 8-10 mininutes, stiring often until mostly vooked through and slightly browned.
Add your tomatoes back into the pan with the eggplant, place heat to low/med and cook for another 5 minutes just to meld together. Add in your cornstartch slurry a bit at a time, until the sauce reaches a consistency to your liking. The cornstartch will react to the heat and thicken as it simmers, which is why i just like to add a bit at a time. Next add in your soy sauce mixture while the heat is still on and the extra bit of fish sauce, a drizzle of sesame oil, drop in a tablespoon of butter, and stir- let it sit for a couple minutes on residual heat.
While your sauce is sitting, fluff your rice with a tablespoon of butter and salt to taste. Serve your sauce with a hot bowl of rice, and garnish with scallions and sesame seeds if you have, and eat with a big spoon!!! Enjoy.
p. s
This recipe was a haul to write and I moved into my new house and quit my job all in- between “soaking your eggplant in salt and water and enjoying” I hope it works hahahahah!
Also there is a very quick kimchi recipe with this that I dont feel like posting now but will get around to it soon.
xoxo
Sarah
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