Chinese BBQ Eggplant – Cooking w/ Wendy

It seemed fitting that the radio background noise was saying how China was the biggest threat to the United States as we began the long prep to prepare 7 Chinese dishes for dinner that night. Wendy, who is visiting the US from China, was taking the time to share the culture and knowledge of cooking some of her favorite Chinese dishes with my family. We turned off the radio and cooked, for although the governments were in opposition in a trade war, this does not reflect the personal friendships between the people of each country.

One of the dishes I was really looking forward to Wendy showing us was BBQ eggplant. BBQ eggplant was one of my favorite dishes I ate when traveling in China so it was hard to hold back my excitement as we picked up the ingredients at Shuang Hur grocery store in St. Paul!

I first had this style of eggplant when I met up with my old friend and coworker Naresh in Shanghai. We stopped at a BBQ place where you could order many different meats or vegetables and have them grilled over an open flame. It was ~$1/item. Everything was delicious and washed down perfectly with a beer!

Naresh recommended getting an eggplant. I was never really into eggplant back home so I didn’t think much of it. Once I tried it I knew this was something else! We had to get another one and put in a second order of eggplant. This was something I was going to have to make back home!

Ingredients

• Eggplant (Chinese)
• Green Pepper (optional)
• Green Onion

Sauce

• 1 tsp Whole Cumin Seeds
• 1-2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 4 Tbsp Soy Sauce (reduced sodium)
• 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil for Sauce
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• 6 heaping tsp Minced Garlic
• 1/8 tsp salt (if using reduced sodium soy sauce)
• 3 Dried Chile Japones (for spicy)

Steps

1. Wash eggplant
2. Place eggplant on tinfoil-lined baking sheet
3. Put Oil on top of Eggplant
4. Wrap eggplant in Tinfoil on baking sheet
5. Put in Oven at 400F for 18 – 20 min (depending on size)
6. Prepare sauce in bowl with Oil, Soy Sauce, Cumin Seeds, Minced Garlic, Little Oyster Sauce & Soy Sauce, Sugar,  (for spicy add chopped dried peppers) and mix
7. Take eggplant out of oven and slice long ways on one side. Open the 2 halves
8. Put sauce on eggplant halves
9. Put back in oven for 8-10 min
10. Garnish with chopped green onion or cilantro before serving

The eggplant turned out very delicious! Some modifications I will try next time are to use fatter eggplants and increase the cooking time, possibly try cooking it over the grill (you rotate the eggplant and it gets a slightly charred outside), and adding more garlic!