Chinese-style Spicy Eggplant Basil Stir Fry

Earlier this year, V and I became proud owners of a cast-iron wok that we purchased at The Wok Shop in San Francisco.  We have treated it pretty well and hopefully it is developing a nice patina with all the quick stir fries we have made, as vegetarian Chinese food is one of V’s favorites.

Eggplant Basil Stir Fry

Our main guidebook for using and caring for the wok is The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.  The title of the book is a metaphorical translation of wok hay, which is the indescribable essence and energy a well-cared-for wok imbues in to the food cooked in it as I had mentioned in an earlier post.  The book also has a lot of interesting ‘wok-lore’ and beautiful pictures of artists making woks and cooks using woks.

V is not a big fan of eggplant, mainly because he thinks it is always cooked with too much oil.  This is why I have been mostly giving away the Asian eggplant growing super-productively in our garden. This weekend however, when I harvested a bunch of eggplant and basil, I asked V to please make a stir fry. Predictably he declared he would not touch the eggplant but will make a stir fry with just the carrots and celery I had cubed to go with the eggplant!   So, I banished him from the kitchen and took over.

Basil & Chinese Eggplant in our garden

In the end, V thoroughly enjoyed the stir fry and declared that it was the best eggplant he had ever had! This is how I won him over – the trick to make sure the eggplant is not too oily is to steam it for about 5 minutes before stir frying it.  The idea came from a recipe for “Spicy Garlic Eggplant” in The Breath of a Wok.

Eggplant Basil Stir Fry

Recipe for Spicy Eggplant Basil Stir Fry
Adapted from a recipe for Spicy Garlic Eggplant in The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson
[Printable Recipe]

Ingredients:

  • 5-6 medium Asian eggplants, cut into 2 inch long pieces
  • Sauce:
    • 1/4 cup soy sauce (check if it is gluten-free if you are allergic)
    • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
    • 2 Tbsp ‘Shao Hsing’ rice wine (you can find this in an ethnic Asian grocery store)
    • 1 tsp brown sugar
    • 1 tsp salt 
    • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil or sesame oil
  • 5-6 large cloves garlic, minced fine 
  • 2 inch piece ginger, grated
  • 5-6 whole dried red chilies soaked in warm water for around 10 mins and drained
  • 2 medium carrots, cubed
  • 3-4 stems of celery, cubed 
  • 1 tub (12 oz) of extra firm tofu, drained thoroughly by pressing, and cubed
  • 1 huge bunch of basil, chopped
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil for drizzling (you can find this in an ethnic Asian grocery store)
Method:
  • Use a steamer and steam the cut eggplant for around 5 minutes
  • Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce and set aside
  • Heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic, ginger and soaked red chilies and fry for half a minute
  • Add the cubed carrots and celery and fry for a couple of minutes
  • Add the cubed tofu and steamed eggplant and fry for half a minute
  • Now stir the sauce in to the wok and cook for about a minute until the eggplant has soaked up the sauce
  • Switch off the heat and stir in the basil
  • When the basil has wilted, remove from wok in to serving platter and drizzle with sesame oil
  • Serve with steamed white rice
Eggplant Basil Stir Fry

The fact that V ended up enjoying the stir fry so much made me think of how different we are in the kitchen.   Even though he makes awesome stir fries (he is good at not cooking the vegetables too long), V would never have ‘adapted’ such a recipe.  V is so “by the book” that he drives me crazy by refusing to budge even if a single ingredient in the published recipe is missing.  I, on the other hand, go in with an outline of a recipe and use whatever I have at hand.    What sort of cook are you?

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