Effortnesslessly: Crispy Japanese Eggplant

Japanese eggplant has very tender white, buttery flash. Special cooking technique in this recipe makes it crispy on outside and melting-soft inside. Served with zesty ginger-garlic sauce, it is a winner!

Blog's Category: Appetizer, Healthy, International, Roasted Vegetables, Vegetarian

3 Japanese eggplants, sliced into large triangle pieces (see pictures below)

2 tbs salt

3 tbs rice flour (or corn starch, or potato starch)

3-5 tbs flavorless olive oil ( or other frying oil of your choice)

3 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 tbs fresh ginger, finely grated

3 tbs light soy sauce

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs corn or potato starch

2 cups of water

pinch of cayenne pepper

fresh cilantro for garnishing, roughly chopped (optional)

- In a large bowl, mix eggplant pieces with a salt and let it stay for about 20 minutes.

- After 20 minutes, transfer eggplant into colander and rinse eggplant under running water. Transfer eggplant onto towel to remove remaining moisture, then transfer into a large dry bowl, sprinkle with a rice flour and shake well to coat eggplant pieces with a rice flour.

- Preheat oven to 400F and line baking sheet with a parchment paper.

- Fry eggplant in a batches on a preheated skillet in oil, turning pieces, just until slightly golden and crispy. Transfer fried pieces to prepared baking sheet.

- Roast fried eggplant in a preheated to 400F oven for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown.

- To prepare sauce, in the same skillet you fried your eggplants, cook garlic and ginger for about 1 minute, stirring. Then add soy sauce and sugar. Cook for another minute. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Stir 1 tablespoon of starch in a cup of cold water, then add this mix to a boiling sauce, continuously stirring until sauce thickens. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper, stir.

- Serve eggplants topped with a fresh cilantro and drizzled with a sauce.

- Enjoy!

- * Don't forget to check out pictures below and some useful comments there :)

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IN PICTURES

Eggplant is sliced and shaken with rice flour. This is Oriental roll-cut into 1 inch pieces. To do this, cut a 1 inch slice off the end of eggplant holding knife at a 45-degree angle. Roll the eggplant half-way around, then cut off a second slice again at 45-degree angle. Continue to slice this way until eggplant is cut up.

Interestingly enough, eggplant will not soak oil in too much as you, probably, would expect.

I have a serious suspicion that next time I will omit roasting-in-oven stage all together. Eggplants look already awesome at this stage.

Transferred to baking sheet for roasting. I like to use parchment paper for roasting - vegetables won't stick and I won't need to wash silicon mat if it would be them ;)

Adding water to cooked garlic and ginger.

To thicken sauce, mix starch with water thoroughly right before adding it to a sauce.

As a finishing touch, you can use hand held blender to get rid of tiny pieces of garlic and ginger and make it completely smooth. Just transfer sauce into proper deep saucer before doing it, to avoid splashes with a hot liquid.