Greetings foodies! This week I decided to step it up a notch from my usual bread or beverage pursuits and document a full meal being put together. It's actually quite convenient that my favorite method of procrastination, making a drawn out, time consuming meal, happens to be Sunday night homework every week! I was working on a paper in the library when the half eggplant I had waiting in the fridge started calling my name across whatever metaphysical plane it is that these kinds of things happen. I rarely enjoy eggplant when I make it but I've had it excellently prepared on a few choice occasions so I thought it would be fun to take a crack at making this awkward purple fruit something I could enjoy eating. And really, what better way to enjoy a foreign food than to cover it in egg and starch and then deep fry the heck out of it?
Consulting Bittman and hoping he had a recipe about deep fried eggplant that I could base my blog post on, I instead found a delicious sauce: Soy Citrus variation of the Soy and Sesame Dipping Sauce or Marinade featured on page 776. I started by augmenting the sauce with some fresh cilantro, then upon disapproval of the first draft I added about 2 Tbs tahini to thicken things up and smooth out the sharp and heavy garlic and soy sauce flavors.
With the sauce prepared to my liking, I got to skinning and thinly slicing the eggplant. I then assembled my breading station which featured corn starch to start, then an egg bath and finally a mixture of whole wheat flour, and Momma Boo's homemade Szechuan peppercorn salt and chinese 10 spice blend. (she uses the recipe's from Barbara Tropp's "China Moon" cookbook and offers these kinds of pantry ingredients as gifts. I do love me mum).
With the eggplant discs ready to rock, I put them aside to dry and got to stir-frying some collard greens and dried apricots in yet another blend of China Moon pantry ingredients: curry powder and 5 flavor oil. With the greens sufficiently wilted and the apricots nice and gooey I put them in the food processor to create what can be best described as a paste, then set about deep frying the eggplant.
Not wanting to seem anything less than fancy, I arranged a nice looking plate that sated maybe a quarter of my appetite. The final assembly featured the sweet greens paste perched atop the fried eggplant with a dab of sauce and a sprig of fresh cilantro on top. Overall, I think the flavors complimented each other very nicely; the sharp sauce was balanced well by the sweet, smooth greens and apricot blend. The soft eggplant was set off nicely by the crispy breading and, with its own subtle notes, did well to carry the more bold flavors offered by the rest of the plate.
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