Steamed Eggplant with Chilli Oil
Steamed eggplant with chilli oil is a spicy vegetarian side dish perfect with hot steamed rice. This recipe is based on the dish my mum would make, one of my absolute favourites to serve as an easy weeknight meal.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 3 Chinese eggplant
- 62.5 mL white vinegar
- 40 mL chilli oil or chilli crisp (see note)
- 20 mL soy sauce
- 20 mL oyster sauce
- 10 mL Shaoxing rice wine (Chinese cooking wine)
- 5 g sugar
- Pinch white pepper
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ginger minced
- 1 spring onion finely chopped - plus extra for garnish
- 60 mL vegetable oil
Instructions
- Slice eggplants into quarters, lengthways, and then cut each strip into three pieces.Place into a bowl and cover with water and white vinegar. Soak for 5 minutesbefore draining and squeezing out any excess water.
- Place into a heatproof dish and into a bamboo steamer basket. Steam for 10 minutes until eggplant is soft.
- Meanwhile, mix together chilli oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar and white pepper.
- Once eggplant is steamed, remove it from the steamer basket. Pour sauce over the eggplant and then sprinkle minced garlic, ginger and spring onion over the top.
- Heat vegetable oil in a small pan on the stove until it begins to smoke. Pour over garlic, ginger and spring onion to temper. Top with extra spring onion to garnish. Serve alongside other dishes, with hot, steamed rice.
Notes
- You want to use a chilli oil that has both the infused oil and aromatics in it, scooping a bit of both for the sauce of this recipe - not JUST the oil. This is often referred to as Chilli Crisp in the U.S.