RCP: Eggplant Adobo

[Jenise]

An article whose beginning premise was 'You can adobo anything' led to this recipe suggestion for eggplant. Ever looking for more interesting ideas for meatless main courses, and being that I love vinegar, soy sauce and bay leaves endlessly, this sounds like a great fit for me and I'll be trying it soon. Thought I'd share:

Eggplant Adobo
Makes: 4 servings (with rice)
Time: About 20 minutes
Ingredients
● 4 to 6 tablespoons grapeseed or vegetable oil
● 4 medium Filipino or Chinese eggplant, stems trimmed and cut into
1-inch slices
● 4 to 5 garlic cloves, chopped
● 1 bay leaf
● 1/3 cup sugar cane vinegar (or white distilled vinegar)
● 1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari
● 1/3 cup water
● 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper, more to taste
● Salt
● Steamed white rice for serving
Instructions
1. In a wide pan over medium-high heat, heat about 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add
the eggplant and cook, in batches, until browned, adding more oil to the pan as
needed. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
2. In the same pan over low heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add garlic and cook,
stirring regularly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add bay leaf, soy sauce,
vinegar, water, and pepper; adjust the heat and bring to a simmer. Add eggplant
and cook for about 3 to 5 more minutes, or until tender. Season with salt and
additional pepper to taste. Serve hot with lots of steamed white rice.

This is quite appealing and I will try it the next time eggplants look good. I would comment that 2 T oil would be soaked up by 2 slices in a millisecond and think the oil quantities suggested are seriously underestimated. I've gotten away from frying eggplant because of it's sponge effect. I will either brush slices with olive oil and grill for dishes like rollatini or lasagna but cubes par cooked in the microwave really limit the sponge for oil effect and allow you to do secondary browning with much less oil. Parcooked they are then a sponge for the dressing while retaining their shape much better than they do when fried from the beginning. When the sponge is saturated with oil from frying it can't absorb the dressing well.

This sounds like a win for fairy eggplants!

[Jenise]

Christina, I had similar thoughts. Eggplant is the diaper of the vegetable world and I too wondered if two tblsp per batch would be enough. For another dish, I marinate/microwave until nearly done before pan-frying to finish which uses very little oil comparatively speaking and gets great color/crust on the eggplant itself, which I love. Somewhere between this recipe and what I just described is what I'd lean toward.

In my estimation, the flavor profile sounds a lot like a recipe my family likes - Spicy Szechuan Eggplant, which is the only way I can get them to eat eggplant. Only this one is with ground pork and without bay leaves. When I downloaded it many years ago it was on a now defunct site listed as about.com. Looks like the site has been taken over by Spruce Eats, but it is the identical recipe.

[Jenise]

The ground pork would be delicious.

Didn't realize about.com had gone away. Not a site I recall using much, but I do remember reading articles about smoking meat there, and my daughter-in-law managed a yoga page there.

That recipe for Sichuan fish-fragrant eggplant looks very authentic--it matches the one in Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks and the one at The Mala Project. Several other Sichuan recipes add a bit of stir-fried ground pork to what otherwise would be a vegetarian dish. Ants Climbing a Tree and Dan-Dan Noodles come to mind. I don't recall ever seeing bay leaves used in Chinese cooking.

-Paul W.