Weekend Wokking with Eggplant

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that I’m very particular about. I’m not a big fan of those oversized specimens often found in the grocery store. There are two reasons. First, they are usually tasteless. Second, the proportion of skin to pulp is wrong—there just isn’t enough skin. The pulp just cooks up to a pile of mush. That may be okay if I’m making a dip or baby food but completely useless when I’m trying to stir-fry. That’s why I stick to the small Thai or long Chinese varieties for Asian cooking.


This eggplant stir-fry is a very popular dish found in Thai restaurants across the US, but I don't remember mom ever making it at home. I'll have to ask her why that is because it turns out to be quite easy to throw together and packs a flavorful punch. And my version is far less oily than what's found in most restaurants.

The key to this dish is the Thai black soy sauce. And just to confuse you, it may also be called "dark soy sauce" or "dark thick soy sauce" or "dark sweet soy sauce". This "dark sweet soy sauce" should not be confused with the "real" sweet soy sauce, which is also dark. LOL

Anyhow, there are two popular brands, Healthy Boy or Dragonfly. I like the Healthy Boy brand. I was only familiar with their mushroom soy sauce, but I've recently discovered they have a whole line of soy sauces available and the ones I've tried are all good. Mom uses the Dragonfly brand. To me it tastes a little too strongly of molasses.

Note: In Martin Yan’s Chinatown Cooking (see right sidebar), he explains that the best way to prepare Chinese eggplant is to first oil blanch it, which results in an intense and concentrated eggplant flavor. This is a very common practice in Asian restaurants (and is often used with green beans), but I can’t be bothered to do it at home. I find briefly steaming the vegetable to be a little more manageable. Steaming will soften the vegetable a little and cuts back on the stir-frying time. You can decide which you prefer.

Thai Eggplant Stir-fry with Chicken
Serves 3-4

• 2 long Chinese eggplants, cut lengthwise into quarters and then into 2 to 3 inch segments
• 3 chicken thighs, roughly hand minced
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• ½ bunch Thai sweet basil, leaves only
• chillies to taste, cut in half lengthwise (optional)
• 1 ½ tbs Thai black soy sauce
• 2 tbs thin soy sauce (or 1 tbs regular soy sauce, such as Kikkoman)
• ½ tsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp fish sauce + more to adjust flavor to taste

Start by preparing the eggplants. Prepare a steamer and steam the eggplants for about 5 minutes. They should begin to soften but still feel spongy. Remove them from the steamer to cool a bit. You could even steam them the day before and store them in the fridge until ready to use.

Alternatively, the eggplant can be oil blanched. Heat enough oil to deep fry the eggplant. The oil should be hot enough for deep frying, about 350º. Make sure the eggplant is completely dry before introducing them to the oil and do not crowd them. Fry until they get a bit soft (not mushy!), about 1 ½ to 2 minutes. Drain them well.

Mix the minced garlic and minced chicken in a small bowl and set aside. Make the sauce by combining the black soy sauce, thin soy sauce, fish sauce and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve.

Heat a wok over high heat. When it’s hot, add about 2 tbs oil (peanut, grapeseed, or vegetable). When the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken and chillies, if using, and stir-fry until almost done, about 2 minutes. Do not over stir the meat; give it about 20 to 30 seconds between each stir to get a proper sear. Add the eggplant and basil. Again, don’t over stir. Let the eggplant sear a little as well. Add the sauce mix and stir to coat the meat and vegetables. When it’s all heated through, it’s done. Transfer immediately to a serving bowl or plate and serve with steamed jasmine rice.

This is my submission for this month's Weekend Wokking hosted by Palachinka. If you're interested in hosting or want to see who's hosting in the future, check out this page.

Weekend Wokking with Tomatoes!

And I thought the potato was hard to deal with, but in a way, the tomato is even harder!

As of this post, this lone tomato is the only one I've been able to harvest from my garden. Soon enough, I'll be rolling in tomatoes.

Oh, I could think of a million things to do with it, but most of them don’t involve cooking, at least not this time of year. Right now, the most appealing thing I can think of is to pick a sweet little sungold off the vine and pop it in my mouth. However, that wouldn’t make a very interesting post and since I’m hosting Weekend Wokking this month, I thought it’d look better if I actually made something. As luck would have it, I found a recipe in my Food of Thailand book (see right side bar) that looked interesting and for which I had all the ingredients. I love when that happens.

I’m no history expert, but I’m pretty sure the tomato is not native to Thailand and is not widely used in Thai cooking. However, it makes an appearance in a few dishes, such as som tom, hot and sour soup, and Thai-style sweet and sour pork. It seems to be more widely used in Thai restaurants here in the States, where I’ve seen it served in fried rice and even pad kee mao. I’m not a purist, so I don’t mind at all.

The one thing to consider about stir-frying tomatoes is the ripeness of the tomato. I prefer to use harder tomatoes. In fact, those picked-before-their-peak, store-bought tomatoes usually work well because they have firm flesh. They will soften without dissolving, if you know what I mean. Using riper tomatoes will give the stir-fry a little more of a tomato-y sauce. It’s all a matter of preference, really.

I should also talk a little about the other ingredients in this dish because they are special as well. The first is Thai eggplant. Most of you have probably encountered these before. For those who haven’t, it’s a small round fruit (vegetable??) with an eggplant flavor. Usually the green and white ones are available, but there are some that are completely white and even some purple ones. These varieties have a lot of little seeds, but they are completely edible. I think they give a pleasant crunch to the dish, kind of like fish eggs on the outside of a sushi roll. Unlike it’s bigger, more familiar relative the purple eggplant, it is less spongy. Some people may find that steaming Thai eggplants for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on size) gives a nice soft texture. Usually I’m too impatient to do this. I just cut them into quarters and add them to the food, allowing an additional 5 to 10 minutes to cook. If you can’t find Thai eggplants, you could certainly use the more familiar purple kind or the Chinese purple eggplants. The only difference to the dish would be the texture.



The other ingredient is Chinese black vinegar. Often I see recipes say that balsamic vinegar can be used as a substitution. I would be hesitant to use balsamic though. The Chinese vinegar is a lot sweeter and much less acidic than balsamic. It’s also made of rice and not grapes. I suppose in a pinch you could use balsamic, but use less to account for the acidity.

Now for the dish…it’s tasty! I’m not saying that to be snobby. I was actually quite surprised. It was the first time I’d made it, and I was a little nervous scanning over the list of ingredients. I mean, two tablespoons each of palm sugar and Chinese black vinegar??!! I figured it would be way too sweet, but it turned out wonderfully balanced, both in flavor and texture. The flavor of the ginger comes through nicely too. For this particular dish I used firm cherry tomatoes, which I left whole. They held up to the stir-frying quite well, not tearing and releasing their juices. The result was an explosion of sweet tomato flavor with each bite. Just be sure to let the stir-fry cool slightly otherwise you’ll get a very hot explosion of flavor! If you want a saucier stir-fry, try cutting up the tomatoes.

BTW, the chicken is totally optional in this dish. I added simply because I had some to use.



Spicy Thai Eggplant and Cherry Tomato Stir-fry
adapted from The Food of Thailand
serves 3 to 4 adults

• ¾ pound Thai eggplant, cut into halves
• roughly ½ pound cherry tomatoes
• 2 tbs fish sauce, plus a couple of splashes to prepare the eggplant
• 2 tbs Chinese black vinegar
• 2 tbs palm sugar (or 1 tbs brown sugar)
• 1 tsp to 1 tbs sambal oelek (this completely depends on your tolerance for heat)
• 1 tbs minced ginger
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 chicken breast or two thighs, thinly sliced for stir-frying (optional)

I normally don’t pre-cook my Thai eggplants, but I did this time, so I recommend you doing it. Toss the eggplant halves with a couple splashes of fish sauce and steam them for 5 minutes or so, until they soften a bit. You don’t want them to be mush. When done, remove them to the side until needed.

While the eggplant is steaming, make the sauce by combining the fish sauce, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

In another small bowl, combine the sambal, ginger, shallot and garlic. These will go in the wok at the same time, so it’s just as easy to put them together ahead of time.

Heat your wok over high heat until very hot. Add about 2 tbs oil and when that begins to smoke, add the chicken. Stir-fry it for about a minute or two, just until it’s almost done. Remove to a bowl.

Add more oil to your wok if necessary. Throw in the sambal mix and stir-fry until fragrant, about 20 seconds or so. Make sure it doesn’t burn. You’ll know your doing it right if you start to cough on account of the chili hitting the wok. ☺

Throw in the eggplants and tomatoes. Combine with the sambal mix, but don’t over stir or you’ll break the tomatoes. Once the vegetables appear to soften slightly (about 2 minutes), add the chicken back in. Toss a little, then add the sauce mix by drizzling it down the sides of your wok. It should caramelize fairly quickly due to the sugar content. Coat the chicken and vegetables with the sauce and once the chicken is cooked through, you’re done! Remove to a plate, immediately, but allow it to cool for about 5 minutes before digging in.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

If you’re interested in participating in Weekend Wokking, there’s still time! Send me your entries before midnight on the last day of the month. If you can’t make this round, check out whose hosting in the future. And check out Wandering Chopsticks; she’s the one that started it all.

Added: Check out the round-up!