Eggpl- Oh no...not eating that..

Hey Everybody,(in the back of my head. I hear you all saying "hey Dr. Nick")

It's time for the second post I owe you all (I swear I'm not trying to make the backlog of posts a recurring theme) I don't have much to say to lead up to this so I'll… Just get to it.


Braised Eggplant Szechuan-style

two medium eggplants trimmed.
4 tablespoons sunflower oil.
1 1/4 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red chili trimmed seeded and minced
1 sweet red pepper poured seeded and chopped
sea salt and black pepper.
2 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal.
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to garnish

chop the egg plants into 5/8 inch slices then halve the slices to give half moons

for the sauce, mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat a large pan and add half of the oilTip in the ginger, garlic, onion and chili and stirfry over medium heat for 4-5 min., until the onion begins to soften. Stir in the red pepper and cook for another minute before adding the remaining oil and the eggplant pieces. Season lightly and cook turning frequently for 3 to 4 min.

give the sauce a stir and pour into the pan stir well, then turn the heat to low. Simmer for 8 to 10 min. or until the eggplant is just tender, giving the mixture a stir every now and then

transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle over the green onions and sesame seeds serve over bowls of steamed rice or Asian noodles.

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The replacements I made to this recipewere fairly subtle.(kinda) First I replaced the eggplants with yellow squash. Considering the size difference. I just put in a few more squash and eggplant. Not needing to cut the discs in half. Similar to the fact that I do not like raw tomatoes I can't stand eggplants, they're way too squishy and slimy for me every time I've eaten them. it was a simple switch in my head to exchange the eggplants for yellow squash and I'm glad I did. The other not so obvious switch in the recipe was instead of using sunflower oil for frying up. I used toasted sesame oil since toasted sesames would be eventually placed on the recipe as well. I figured it would be a subtle and permanent addition to the flavor and wouldn't be overpowering considering sesames aren't that strong to begin with.

This recipe is good, the first time. in my opinion it rapidly lost its appeal after I reheated the dish. And I do not know if that is because I didn't put sesame seeds on it the second time or I didn't add the green onions on top, but what I do know is it wasn't as good the second time around.  Maybe that is just me and the fact that I'm not really a big fan of squash or squashes, but I wasn't too ecstatic about finishing leftovers in the long run.


Well that's it for now...look forward(or don't) to my next curious recipe!