Braised Aubergine

Aubergine browned hard and then braised in a sweet-sour sauce that reduces onto it.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines, about 700 g, in 4 cm batons
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
• 2 spring onions, sliced, white and green kept apart

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 150 ml water
• 2 teaspoons cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water

Method

1. Toss the aubergine batons with the salt and leave them 15 minutes, then blot them dry. Salted aubergine takes up less oil than raw aubergine, which is otherwise a sponge.
2. Stir the soy sauce, black vinegar, sugar and water together in a bowl. Keep the cornflour slurry separate until the end — stirred in early it would thicken and then thin out again.
3. Get the oil hot in a wide pan and lay the aubergine in one layer. Leave it alone for 2 minutes before turning, so the cut faces brown rather than steam.
4. Turn the pieces and brown the other faces, about 4 minutes in all. They should be collapsing at the edges and streaked dark.
5. Push the aubergine to one side, add the garlic, ginger and the white of the spring onions, and stir them in the oil for 30 seconds, until they smell sharp rather than raw.
6. Pour the sauce in, bring it to a simmer, cover, and leave it 8 minutes. The aubergine should be soft enough to give way under a spoon.
7. Stir the cornflour slurry again and pour it in while the pan is bubbling, turning everything over until the sauce turns glossy and clings. Scatter the spring onion greens on and take it off the heat.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes