Easy Easy Eggplant

I love love love eggplant. A lot of people I know wrinkle up their nose when I talk about eggplant, but I think it is amazing. I like cooking it until its soft and soaks up the sauces I cook it in. Its super hearty, and is awesome with rice. If you don’t have some of the ingredients, aka oyster sauce, go out and get some! Its super essential to Asian/Chinese cooking and extremely versatile (great for marinades and stir fries). Its also widely available, and can be found in most supermarkets. Here’s a super simple recipe that I got from my mom:

Recipe:

1/2 medium sized eggplant (Cut off the stem and cut up the rest into chunks. I like 2 inch long slices about 1/2″ thick)
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar (I usually use brown)
cooking oil
1 tbsp wine or sherry (I use Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine for everything)
garlic (however much you want, I would say 2-3 cloves)
black pepper

(1) Steam eggplant for ~ 15 minutes under medium heat (or until soft, give it a few more minutes if its still a little hard). Drain the liquid after its done / before you pour on the sauce. (I imagine that you can also just put the eggplant in a pan with some water and cook for about 10-15 minutes until soft, drain the liquid and then add the sauce.)
(2) When there is about 5-7 minutes left for the steaming, heat up a skillet with enough oil to cover it. Cut up the garlic (or mince it, whatever you prefer) and saute over the pan for a few minutes.
(3) Lower heat for a minute or two, add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, wine, pepper (to taste) and stir around until hot, and a little bubbly. If the consistency is too watery, raise the heat a little and stir around until the sauce thickens. I like my sauce to be a little less viscous than honey. Otherwise, pour on top of your ready-eggplant and eat up! Sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds if desired.

If you want, you can definitely also add some meat to this. Last week I cooked the eggplant itself, and added some ground beef to my leftover eggplant for the follow days. Freaking delicious! To do so, just:

(1) Get some ground beef or pork (1/4-1/2lb for 1/2-1 eggplant, depending on how meaty you want it), season with a little salt, more pepper, some lemon juice (a tsp), a tbsp (or 2) of soy sauce.
(2) Heat a skillet on high with enough oil to cover, throw in some garlic cloves (however many you would like) for a minute or two.
(3) Throw in the meat, flatten it against the pan so it browns on one side, for about a minute. Flip over to brown on the other side.
(4) Lower the heat to medium low, throw in the eggplant with the sauces, stir it all around, and simmer under low heat (cover on) until meat is fully cooked (aka not red anymore). Remove lid and turn up the heat if it becomes too watery.