The Best Way to Cook Eggplant

Admittedly, the title above is slightly less than objective and there’s nothing I can do to prove this eggplant dish is truly better than the other 1000+ that all claim to own the spot at the top. But I will say this – I had no idea eggplant could actually taste good until I started making it this way.

If you want to get straight to the recipe go ahead and skip this paragraph of introduction and background and you’ll find what you’re looking for below. And for the rest who take interest, I’ll say a word about the recipe. What I’m going to show you how to make is a Chinese-style stir fried eggplant. I’ve not had this exact thing in any restaurant while living in China but I had much that was similar to it. I never liked eggplant until moving to China, but after tasting some of the eggplant served to me there and doing a little experimenting of my own, this became one of my favorite stir-fry dishes to make. If you’ve all but given up hope that eggplant is worth cooking, please give this a try … I think you’ll find the vegetable has some very redeemable qualities!

1.Turn on the burner to medium high and pour in the peanut oil. Turn the wok to coat as much as you can up the sides. I don’t measure anything, but you’ll want to be generous with the oil because eggplant absorbs a lot of it and if there’s not enough it will either burn or end up dry.

2.When the oil is hot, throw in a little portion of the garlic (teaspoon) and the eggplant. Stir to get the oil on all the pieces. Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and stir frequently. The salt should draw moisture out of the eggplant and you should see it become gradually more “wet” in appearance and soft. I often cover the wok with a lid for a while to speed up this process and keep the moisture in, rather than allowing it all to evaporate.

3.When all of the eggplant appears “wet” and smooth, pour in soy sauce (again, I don’t measure but I guess about 1 tablespoon) and throw in the cut pepper. Stir thoroughly, and then cover and let sit for about 30 seconds

4.Remove the cover and throw in the scallions (or leek) and garlic. Continue stirring. You can taste a piece of eggplant for texture. Continue stir frying until it’s as soft as you want it – it should have some resistance when chewed, if it’s “mushy” you’ve cooked it too long. Add salt or more soy sauce if it tastes lacking.

5.When it’s done, throw in the cilantro and turn off the heat. Mix the cilantro into the dish and it’s ready to be served!

The instructions probably make it sound much more complicated than it really is. I have a tendency of using a lot of words. Good for school essays, not so much for recipes. But I assure you, once you’ve tried this stir fry a couple times you’ll get the idea of how long things should be cooked (covered or not covered) to get the kind of texture you want. If it doesn’t turn out great the first time, just think about what can be done next time to correct it. It’s never exactly the same each time I make this but it's nearly always delicious. When I was just trying it for the first time, though, some of the problems I had were with not using enough oil (eggplant never got smooth and moist) or with cooking it too long (got too mushy). But the few times where it didn’t turn out exactly right were well worth all the times that it’s proved itself to be the BEST way to cook eggplant! Now go make yourself the envy of all your friends and cook up some Chinese stir fry!