I’m a sucker for eggplant in any form, but really adore it in Chinese food, especially when it’s tossed in a spicy garlic sauce accentuated with the gentle heat of chili. So the second I saw the cover of Hannah Che’s stellar new cookbook, “The Vegan Chinese Kitchen,” man, did I squeal in delight.
The picture of her Sichuan “fish-fragrant” eggplant is so luscious-looking that less than a day later, in absolute heaven, I was working my way through a steaming bowl of the dish with chop sticks. “If you aren’t a fan of eggplant, it’s because you haven’t had this dish yet,” she writes in the recipe’s headnotes, and she is absolutely right: heady with garlic, with a punch of spice from red chili and fresh ginger, it’s an absolute winner.
The eggplant is stir-fried to a golden, crispy finish before being braised in the sauce, resulting in creamy, delectable bits of eggplant that melt in your mouth.
If you’re turned off by the word “fish” in the title, don’t be. It doesn’t actually include any. Rather, it refers to the pungent aromatics often associated with Sichuan fish cookery. The sauce is sweet, sour and spicy all at the same time, with noticeable bits of chopped ginger, garlic and scallion.