Eggplants from the Great Wall

FavorFlavs Marjan spent a few days walking along the Great Wall in China and, after every strenuous hike, was rewarded at the village farmhouse where she stayed with freshly prepared local food. Like this eggplant dish. Chinese comfort food at its finest.

The dish may not look very appealing. In other words: a little mushy. But the flavor more than makes up for that. I have eaten quite a few stewed eggplants in and around Beijing. All delicious. But this one easily surpassed them all. It did take some effort to coax the local cook’s secret family recipe out of her, but I succeeded.

Now all that remains is to practice very hard to recreate exactly the same flavor.

Method
Cut the eggplants into cubes the size of a pencil sharpener. Mix in 45 grams of cornstarch. Cut the onions and green bell pepper into pieces of the same size for later use. Finely chop the garlic.

Mix the salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper and 15 grams of cornstarch for the sauce. Make enough sauce for the amount of eggplant.

Pour oil into the wok. As soon as it starts to smoke, fry the eggplant in batches. Do not add too much at once. Make sure all the pieces are lightly golden and crisp. Set them aside.

Remove most of the oil from the wok, leaving about 2 teaspoons. Stir-fry the onions and bell pepper, add the eggplant and the sauce, and mix everything well in the wok. Finally, add the finely chopped garlic and mix everything well again.

Image: Marjan Ippel