Spicy Garlic Eggplant

This is the second recipe that I have made from the blog Steamy Kitchen.  She has lots of unique, asian inspired recipes that are pretty foolproof.  

I would have made the recipe as she directed, but when I went to Whole Foods, the mecca of hard to find ingredients, I couldn’t find black vinegar. I substituted in rice vinegar because a google search showed black vinegar is also made from rice.

I ended up needing more oil than the recipe called for. She only suggests 2 tablespoons. This could be because my eggplants were larger than recommended. I added another green onion, because I like onions. I also didn’t add any sugar either.

The ingredients are 3 to 4 tablespoons sesame oil, 3 small eggplants, 2 garlic cloves, 1 red chile pepper, 1 tablespoon ginger, 2 green onions, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon rice vinegar.

I cut the eggplant into spears.

I heated a tablespoon of oil in a skillet. The pan was hot before I layered the eggplant spears in a single layer over the hot oil. I flipped after a minute and cooked the vegetables on the other side for 2 to 3 minutes. They were browned and a little soft. I had to do this in two batches. I also added more oil because the pan was dry.

Once all the eggplants were browned, I added all the eggplants to the pan and pushed them to the edge of the skillet. I added another tablespoon of oil, the garlic, chopped red chile pepper, and chopped green onions.

I stir-fried these ingredients in the center of the pan for a couple of minutes.

I stirred in the eggplants and cooked for about a minute. I added the soy sauce and rice vinegar. The liquid quickly evaporated in the hot pan.

This was a tasty, vegetable side dish. It’s a different, fun way to serve eggplants.

There are two things I would do differently. I would make it with black vinegar because I bet it has a stronger flavor than rice vinegar. I removed the seeds from my pepper, and I should have kept some seeds in because it was not spicy enough.