Chinese eggplant with garlic and black bean sauce. Chinese eggplants are the thin tubular looking ones. Fermented black bean is available at Chinese supermarkets.
For those who insist on quantities, these are all made up amounts based on guesswork.
- 3 chinese eggplants sliced into 1/4" rounds
- 1 TBSP minced garlic
- 1 TBSP minced fermented black bean
- 1/4 cup chicken stock or veg stock if going vegetarian or just water if you’ve don’t have anything else handy
- soy sauce to taste
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Stir fry the garlic and black bean in some canola oil (or whatever oil suits your fancy for stir frying), until fragrant, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add eggplant and soy sauce stir frying some more. Pour in the stock. If the eggplant isn’t softened up, then you can simmer covered until it softens. Make a slurry with the corn starch and add to the mixture, bringing to a boil to thicken things up.
The secret to this recipe is that garlic and fermented black bean sauce makes pretty much anything tasty.
Gendal
3382
Speaking of vegan dishes, I made this today:
Mushroom rissotto.
Wife loved it. Not creamy enough for me, probably because I need to get a new pressure cooker or use the electric one.
Oooo, that recipe sounds really damned good. I kinda wanna give it a shot sometime. My pressure cooker doesn’t really have any controls or anything (just a stovetop unit with a twist-on top), but I suspect it would suffice!
One last BBQ platter for me. Cooked up my fave cornbread recipe and tossed that together with some BBQ (drizzled with S. Carolina mustard sauce), baked beans (from a can), slaw, and a few of last night’s roasted potatoes, reheated in the toaster oven on high to re-crisp. Also steamed some frozen chopped broccoli. . . and served it all with the most Carolinian of sodas, Cheerwine! (Diet, of course)
My wife’s grandmother does a great cold eggplant dish, that’s basically just thin slices, pan-fried, then layered in a dish almost like a casserole with tomato sauce and a bit of cheese. Chilled, and served as antipasto.
No breading or nothing. The end result is floppy slices that you drape over slices of Italian bread. Very tasty, but not something I’ve ever seen in a restaurant or anything.
So isn’t the thing with squid to cook it very quickly so it doesn’t have a chance to turn to rubber? I’ve never cooked with it myself, but I seem to recall reading this somewhere at one point. Ten minutes seems way too long to me off the top of my head, but I could be wrong. Do some research! :)
Timex
3386
Who ARE you? I feel like everything I know is a lie.
Shhhh! It’s my dark secret, remember???
This sounds a lot like Borani Banjan, which the local Afghani restaurant brings out as a kind of giant amuse bouche before the appetizers. Really good stuff. Thin slices are key with eggplant.
Timex
3389
Regarding octopus. It’s different than squid.
Squid is cooked very quick, otherwise it turns tough.
But octopus is different, because it’s way tougher to start with, since it’s much more muscular.
Usually, the normal preparation in Japan involves physically beating it, a LOT, to kind of break up the muscle and tenderize it, then it’s often stewed for a long time.
I believe a similar method is used in Italy.
Now, I think you actually CAN cook it fast and quick like squid, but it’d need to only be a few minutes, like maybe 3-5, and the result is gonna be that it’ll be pretty chewy. Not tough, but chewy like most calamari, and it will be MORE chewy because it’s bigger. You can cook it fast like that and slice it thin, maybe.
But if you go longer than a few minutes, then you are gonna need to go the traditional route, and cook it slowly for a long time.
I actually love octopus, but I feel like eating it may be immoral since they are so smart. It’s something I legitimately struggle with internally when I’m at a sushi restaurant.
This looks so delicious, and more importantly, totally doable at my skill (and available time) level. Thank you @Timemaster_Tim!
I’ll let you know when I try this out.
-xtien
I’m totally intrigued by this. Thank you for passing it on.
-xtien
Oh man, I just made another pizza and it was even better than the first one. Threw a few slices of old school style pepperoni on there too. SO FREAKING GOOD OMG. I never realized the high temps made such a world of difference. Crust is nice and crispy, everything has just the right amount of crunch and smoke and well-done-ness… NOM!
If you want to take a shortcut, the Chinese supermarkets also carry prepared garlic and black bean sauce in jars that you can just add to dishes. I prefer making my own because it’s cheaper, not too hard, and I can make mine extra garlicky.
Sometimes I worry about whether black bean sauce goes bad, because I only use a tablespoon at a time and have had a jar in my fridge for -literally- years. I threw one out a couple years back because it weirded me out, but the current one is getting up in age too.
But I think my mom did that, too, so it’s probably fine. But then, my mom’s fridge is full of unidentifiable things of unknown age, so she’s probably not the best role model here.
Timex
3395
Yeah, it’s weird when you find condiments in your fridge like that, and they look and smell perfectly fine, but are like, 4 years past the use by date.
I tend to throw them out, rather than risk getting sick, but sometimes it’s annoying if I needed that thing to make a recipe I already started.
An excellent condiment to always have on hand, fermented chili paste. Kind of like spicy Korean tomato paste.
RichVR
3396
Speaking of squid, I consider fried calamari as the measure of any restaurant that has it on the menu. If it’s crispy yet tender the restaurant gets my repeat business. If it’s soggy yet rubbery, well, what else don’t they know how to cook? It’s also one of those things I just don’t make at home. Too much work. Same with gnocchi. I can but I’d rather let someone else do the work.
It was pepperoni, mushroom and gruyere this time :D
Alternatively, sous vide at 60c, then sear for 30 seconds a side (1 min if with skin or bone). Sous vide is amazing for chicken breasts. Still not as tasty as thighs, but it solves the dryness/toughness problem completely.[quote=“CLWheeljack, post:3394, topic:50840”]
Sometimes I worry about whether black bean sauce goes bad, because I only use a tablespoon at a time and have had a jar in my fridge for -literally- years. I threw one out a couple years back because it weirded me out, but the current one is getting up in age too.
[/quote]
How on earth do you go years without using up black bean sauce? Just toss it in a stir fry. I can’t imagine a jar staying more than a month in my fridge.
This thread makes me hungry.
It moves! It moves! You wizard, you!
Seriously though, that’s awesome.
