Roasted Eggplant with Fish Sauce
"Let's experiment" —Mom
Excitedly, Mom pulls out a Japanese eggplant—which normally takes the form of a sweet and sour dish made by Dad. But he wasn't home, and Mom really wanted to use the eggplant before it reached the point of no return.
Seeing as how it was a weeknight and she had to pick Sis up from ballet in a couple of hours, it had to be a quick dish. Then she remembered her mother-in-law and a simple dish that always came out phenomenal—roasted eggplant served with a side of fish sauce. She hadn't ever seen Grandma make it before, but she improvised. She chopped the eggplant into roughly two-inch pieces, wrapped it in foil, and turned up the electric stove. She used her cooking chopsticks to flip the eggplant a few times to get an even roast.
She told me to grab the fish sauce and pour it in a saucer, which as her helping hand in the kitchen I happily obliged. I waited with excitement to taste the end results.
Mom unwrapped the eggplant and it was beautifully charred on all ends, the bright purple turned a deep brown. She told me to grab some chopsticks and try a bite with her before we set the table.
Chopsticks in hand, I reached for the eggplant, dipped it in the fish sauce and my God it blew my mind. The flavor simultaneously encompassed the umami brought on by the fish sauce and the smokiness of the eggplant—which doesn't have a lot of flavor naturally, so it becomes a great vessel for other spices and sauces. Mom added it to her mental rolodex of weeknight dishes after that.
The version I've made differs from Mom's slightly because I have a gas stove and the Japanese eggplants I bought were small, so they didn't have to be chopped the same way—but the flavor experience, luckily, is the same.
Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 30 mins
INGREDIENTS (FOR 2)
| 1/2* lb Japanese eggplant |
| 1 tbsp olive oil |
| 1 stalk of scallion, chopped (optional) |
| + fish sauce to taste |
*this should be equal to either six small eggplants (pictured) or two large eggplants
PREPARE
1. Wash eggplants. If you're using the large Japanese eggplants, chop them into roughly two-inch pieces lengthwise and then slice them widthwise. If you're using small ones, then no need to take out the knife quite yet.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
COOK
1. Grab your tongs or cooking chopsticks and turn up your stove to medium heat. As noted above, I have a gas stove, so there's an open flame for me to use for roasting. I hold the eggplant over the flame and rotate it, giving it a nice even char. If you're using an electric stove, then wrap your eggplant in foil and place it on top of the stove, remembering to turn it on its various sides every few minutes.
2. Once the outside is evenly charred, take the eggplant off the stove and if you're using the small ones, slice widthwise so the inside is revealed. You'll note that it's green. Grab your tongs/cooking chopsticks and bring that back to the stove to roast the insides as well. If you're using the large eggplants pre-sliced, you can skip this step.
3. When the eggplant is evenly charred, place it on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Place in oven for 15 minutes (you can play with the time a little here, depending on how charred your eggplants become), so that the inside gets cooked through.
4. Take out of the oven and toss scallion on top.
EAT
Dip the eggplant in the fish sauce—let it really swim in there, and take the best bite of your life. Serve with a side of rice and any other protein you may be eating that night, or just with rice because it doesn't really need anything else.
