It was Friday, and I was cooking for Shabbat in an uninspired way. Just your basic basil/lemon chicken roasted over root vegetables. Israeli salad (plenty of chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, seasoned with salt, lemon juice and olive oil). Choumous, corn salad, a plate of olives and pickles. The guests were a family with three small children. While I kept the meal plain to please the little people, I wanted one sophisticated dish for the grownups.
I opened the fridge and found two firm, purple eggplants in the vegetable bin. Aha.
Slice, flour, and fry them? Too ordinary.
Ratatouille? Somehow I wasn’t in the mood for ratatouille.
So I searched the friendly Net and found The Eggplant Recipe Database. I adapted this Chinese-ish recipe from it. It’s s sweet and sour, chili-hot and has lots of garlic. My adult guests loved it, and even the Little One, who claims to hate all purple food, ate and enjoyed.
Oooh it looks so good! I love eggplant in every which way and this sounds so good so I must must try it.Only that I don’t like ketchup so have to find something else to use instead of it.
Tomato paste works just as well, Yaelian. You’ll have to adjust the salt and sugar to your taste, is all.
I love eggplant. Do you need to cover the eggplant with paper or cloth first to remove the bitter taste?
I usually slice my eggplant, salt it and let it sit for 1 hour – rinse, drain, then proceed with the recipe. This time it went straight into the oil and wasn’t bitter at all.