Kabayaki Eggplant
As everyone knows, eggplant 🍆 and potatoes 🥔 are two kinds of meat dishes. This kabayaki eggplant, in appearance relative to eel, is like the ginger in potato stew.* relative to potatoes.
Ingredients and Tools
- Eggplant
- kabayaki sauce
- honey
- white sugar
- light soy sauce
- dark soy sauce
- cooking wine
- water
Measurements
- Decide the amount of oil based on the type of pan
- Nonstick pan: after the oil gathers into drops, spread it over the area of the eggplant
- Iron pan: after spreading, the oil can just cover the bottom of the pan
- 1 long eggplant that is smaller at the top and larger at the bottom (do not use Zhejiang eggplant or round eggplant)
- 1 portion of kabayaki sauce
- 20 ml honey
- 15 ml white sugar
- 40 ml light soy sauce
- 10 ml dark soy sauce
- 20 ml cooking wine
- 100 ml water
Steps
- Peel the eggplant and cut it crosswise into two sections
- Steam for 5 minutes
- Cut lengthwise, do not cut through; score 2~3 cuts on each cut surface until it can be flattened
- Pan-fry until both sides are golden
- Pour kabayaki sauce over the eggplant until it covers 1/2 the height of the eggplant
- Fry until the back side colors, then flip
- Reduce the sauce at the same time; if it cannot be reduced you can add starch slurry (ratio of starch to water is 1:4 to 1:10 depending on reduction)
- Pour the remaining kabayaki sauce over the eggplant
- Plate it; a portion of eggplant kabayaki sauce is done
Notes
- This kabayaki is actually very Chinese; Japanese kabayaki is actually grilled.
- The soul is actually in the kabayaki sauce? You can also buy ready-made kabayaki sauce.
- If it feels too rich, you can sprinkle scallions cut into 2~5 mm after plating; the color combination also makes it less monotonous.
- For stir-fried eggplant (fish-fragrant eggplant, spicy soy-braised eggplant), strongly recommend Zhejiang eggplant; it is slender so cutting into rolling pieces is just right, the skin is tender unlike here where peeling is needed, and the eggplant flavor is moderate. If you follow this guide and find issues or improvements, please file an Issue or Pull request.