30 October 2015

Delicious Eggplant Stir-Fry

This recipe comes from Nathan McFall of Food Waves/Converging Creeks Farm. He offers some useful tips for preparing eggplant so that it becomes the perfect base for stir fry.
You can find eggp20151028_182217lant at Food Waves/Converging Creeks on Saturdays at PSU this fall.
Ingredients:
  • 1-2 medium onions
  • 1-3 medium eggplants
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
Method:
This dish is a super easy way to coo
k eggplant without them soaking up all of the oil in your pan.  Eggplant are basically sponges so you need to hydrate them somehow to keep them from drying up the pan of oil and burning.  Using this method you hydrate the eggplant with water from the cooking onions creating a delicious base for your stir fry.  Here’s how:
This recipe can be form fit to any quantity you desire so I am not going to give you exact measurements.  All you need is enough onions in the bottom of the pan so that the eggplant all fit on top!
  1. Dice onions.
  2. Place diced onions in the center of a lightly oiled wide bottom frying pan.
  3. Cut eggplant (with skins) into small-medium cubes and place on top of bed o20151028_182644f onions.
  4. Sprinkle salt (as desired) on top of this onion/eggplant bed.
  5. Cover Pan! A very important step!
  6. Turn on low heat.
  7. Cook on low until moisture starts to collect on the lid (a glass lid is easiest, but anything will do).
  8. Once enough moisture has collected on the lid that you can pour it off, do so onto as many of the eggplant as possible.
  9. Repeat as necessary until either the eggplant have reached their desired tenderness, or the onions start to brown all over.
  10. Be careful not to burn the onions.
  11. Once the onions start to brown all over the pan, usually you can stir the mixture and add other vegetables/spices if desired.
  12. If you don’t want the eggplant to get too soggy, be mindful not to cook them too long after this process.  You may want to have other vegetables partially cooked before adding into this mixture to reduce cooking time after this process.
  13. Add other spices at any time if desired.
  14. Experiment! Have Fun!