Fish Fragrant Eggplant

I'm pretty sure that fish doesn't smell like this. Heck, this dish doesn't even have any sort of fish essences in it. But, as the origin goes, these are the same Szechuan (Sichuan) flavorings used for preparing fish so that it is sweet, sour, and spicy. I added a step to this by baking the eggplant before frying to shorten the fry time of cooking the eggplant since I didn't want to deep fry the eggplant in a lot of oil. Maybe when I do this recipe again, I should cook it with fish instead of eggplant and see how it tastes.

Fish Fragrant Eggplant

Sauce Ingredients

1 tbsp chili bean sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp organic granulated sugar
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 c water

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb Japanese eggplants, cut into 2" pieces and quartered
1 tbsp chili black bean sauce
2 stalks green onions, sliced into 1" pieces
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

In a 9" x 13" baking dish, add sliced eggplant and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F; or bake for 25 minutes if you don't want to wait for the oven to preheat.

1. In a large frying pan or wok, heat oil and add garlic and ginger. Lightly brown the garlic before adding the eggplant. Fry for 5 minutes.

2. Next, add the sauce, cornstarch and water. Fry until all the eggplant is coated. Add the green onions last.

3. Remove from heat and serve with steamed rice.