Let’s start with talking about Stir Fry’s, you should know them, love them, and love to make them. And if you don’t, this recipe may just fix that, stir fry’s are one of the easiest Chinese dishes to make in my opinion and one of the tastiest. The creativity is left up to the chef to decide what protein and what vegetables to use there are no boundaries here.
Eggplant, I always forget about this vegetable….or is it a fruit? Anyways eggplant is so versatile, it’s a great replacement for meat in so many recipes I don’t know why I don’t experiment with it more. I needed to come up with another form of protein because if I told my boyfriend we were having another one of my tofu experiments for dinner he might break up with me.
If you don’t eat eggplant often I would possibly recommend trying this dish with peeled eggplant (where as I left the skin on because I read somewhere it has lots of health benefits, I’ll have to look more into that). The texture of the skin can sometimes be a little tough but I don’t mind this and I think it adds a beautiful color. On the note of color if you can find something called the Japanese eggplant in your stores use this (skin on). The skin is thinner and the color is stunning as well!
The typical culprits I use in my Asian dishes you may be familiar with most, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, sriracha, sombal (garlic chili sauce). Lately with growing my pantry, I have started to keep a staple ingredient in my fridge used for many asian dishes, Oyster Sauce. Now for those of you who don’t eat oysters don’t go running. Yes, the sauce is made from boiled oysters, however, it is seasoned and cooked to create this deep almost sweet caramelized flavor and will really take your Chinese takeout at home to another level. Plus if you eat Chinese food often chances are you’ve had this flavoring before…but did you die (for those allergic to shellfish please look into this ingredient before eating because you could in fact die and we don’t want that)?
Now pull out those chop sticks and lets get cookin!
Ingredients:
1 tbs. Vegetable oil
1/2 tbs. Sesame oil
1/2 Onion (small diced about 1/2 cup)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)
1 tsp. Ginger (minced)
1 medium sized Eggplant (medium diced)
1 package (cups) sliced Portabella Mushrooms
2 tbs. Oyster Sauce
1 tbs. Sombal
2 tbs. Soy Sauce
2 tbs. Chicken Stock
1 tbs. Sesame Seeds
2 Scallions (chopped)
Method:
- In a bowl or measuring up add oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sombal and set aside for later use.
- In a large wok or saute pan heat oils on medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent about 4 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant about 30 seconds.
- Add the mushrooms and eggplant and saute for 3 minutes.
- Add the sauce mixture and continue to cook for 5 minutes until vegetables are tender and cooked through.
- Garnish with Scallions and sesame seeds, serve with white rice and ENJOY!