Eggplant in Sichuan Style
Chinese name: 鱼香茄子 (yú xiāng qié zi)Style: Sichuan Cuisine
Characteristics: it is a spicy dish, tasting soft.
Also named Yu-Hsiang Eggplant or Fish Fragrant Egglant, this dish is one of the most popular home style dishes in Sichuan, just as its name implies.
Eggplant is one of the vegetables proper for making spicy dish because of its strong ability of seasonings absorption, and this dish is just one of the representatives.
Ingredients:
1-2 eggplants, 500g
1 egg
chopped ginger
chopped garlic
chopped green onion
cornstarch
broad bean paste
white sugar
soy sauce
vinegar
Note: the amount of the ingredients especially the seasonings listed above can be appropriately used according to one's personal taste.
Preparation:
1. Peel the eggplant. Clean it and then cut into 2-3 cm long strips. Put onto a plate.
2. Crack egg into a soup bowl or a small basin. Beat it up.
3. Prepare the wet cornstarch for the thickening later.
Methods:
| STEP 1 Add some cornstarch into the egg soup, and stir it until well mixed. Pour the eggplant strips into it, and stir again when every strip is coated with the egg soup with cornstarch. |
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| STEP 2 Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add some cooking oil, and add in the processed eggplant strips one by one with chopsticks. Turn off the fire and remove them through a colander quickly when they look yellowish-white and put them back to the soup bowl. |
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| STEP 3 Leave some cooking oil in the wok, swirling to coat the sides. Add in the broad bean paste, chopped green onion, garlic and ginger and stir-fry over high heat for about 20 seconds. Add some soy sauce and white sugar, and stir-fry them for another 5 seconds. |
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| STEP 4 Pour in the fried eggplant strips and add some boiling water. Stir-fry them for about 1-2 minutes when the eggplant strips turn soft and 100% cooked. Add some vinegar and wet constarch, stir-fry for 10 seconds more. |
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| STEP 5 After cooking with the recipe above, a plate of eggplant in Sichuan style, whose spicy flavor can be sniffed from far away, is ready to be eaten with rice. |
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Tips: if you like meat dishes, you can also add in some ground pork.
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Our Guests in a Chinese Family
On Jul.12, 2012, a family from Spain including Ms. Ana, Mr. Fernando, Ms. Ines, Ms. Amaia, and Mr. Inazio were invited to visit a local family during their tour in Xi'an. They enjoyed their time there and learnt to cook Eggplant in Sichuan Style. It is worth mentioning that there were also plenty of other ways to cook eggplant. They were totally impressed by Chinese ways of cooking and spoke highly about the visit. -
Our Guests Learn to Make Dumplings
On Apr. 9, 2011, Mr. Edwin & Ms. Gertrude from Canada visited a local family in Xi'an under TravelChinaGuide's arrangement. The hostess entertained them with a home-cooked a meal at her own home. Ms. Gertrude had an unforgettable experience to learn to cook Eggplant in Sichuan Style & Chinese Dumplings and to know much about a Chinese housewife's daily life.See details at Mr. Edwin's feedback -
Our Guest Making Dumplings
On Jun. 26, 2010, Ms. France from USA made a family visit when joining our tour group in Xi'an. She learned to cook Eggplant in Sichuan Style, Chinese Dumplings & Ma Po Tofu in Xi'an. She was very satisfied with the meal in the local family and wrote in her feedback:"...My favorite meal was with the family. It was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a Chinese apartment and meet a local area housewife...."See details at Ms. France's feedback
