Claypot Eggplant with Basil

This is a homely recipe for Chinese-style basil eggplants cooked and served in a claypot (九层塔茄子煲). If you don’t have a claypot, cook the dish in a wokpan and dish it out on a serving plate.

See Also:

• Tutorial: How to retain the purple hue of eggplants after cooking
• Tutorial: Claypot Cooking Care
• Easy Eggplant Recipes

The sauce which is soaked up by the eggplant (brinjal or aubergine) is a savoury mix of soy bean paste, soy sauce, garlic and chilli. Sweet basil leaves give the dish a perfumed basil aroma and a nice Taiwanese vibe. STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS

Retain the vibrant purple of eggplant by pre-cooking them before stir-frying: If you were to add eggplants directly to a wok to stir-fry, they will turn an unflattering brown after cooking. While this doesn’t affect the taste of the dish, the presentation is somewhat lackluster. To overcome this common problem, check out this tutorial for pre-cooking the eggplants using either the microwave, boiling or steaming method to ‘lock-in’ the purple hue. For this recipe, I used the the microwave method (pictured above) to do the job.

In a claypot (or regular wokpan), cook the garlic, chilli and soybean paste until aromatic.

Make the sauce and bring to a boil. Add the pre-cooked eggplants and coat them evenly in the sauce.

Cover with lid and simmer down for about 2 minutes.

Stir in basil leaves while the contents are still hot.

Enjoy!~

Print

Claypot Eggplant with Basil Recipe

This is a homely recipe for Chinese-style eggplants (brinjal or aubergine) cooked and served in a claypot. If you don’t have a claypot, cook the dish in a regular wok and dished it out on serving plate.

Serves: 2-3

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 200 grams eggplants cut to 5 cm sections, then cut to smaller “logs”
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 finger-length chilli or 2 chilli padi de-seeded & sliced thinly
• 1 tbsp chilli soy bean paste (spicy “taucheo”/辣豆漿)
• cornstarch slurry dissolve 1 tsp corn starch in 1 tbsp water
• 15 grams fresh sweet basil leaves
• fried shallots to garnish
• chopped spring onions/coriander or fresh basil leaves to garnish

(A) Sauce

• 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 dashes white pepper powder
• 50 ml (1/4 cup) water

You Also Need:

• a claypot for cooking and serving this dish (may also use a wokpan)

Directions:

1. Pre-cook the eggplants using either the microwave, boiling or steaming method. View this tutorial for the instructions. Set aside.
2. Cook the aromatics and make the sauce. Heat oil in claypot (or a regular wokpan). Add garlic and chilli; stir fry until the garlic starts to turn colour. Add soybean paste and stir fry briskly until aromatic. Add sauce ingredients (A) and bring to a boil. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry.
3. Cook the eggplants and serve. Add cooked eggplants, coating them thoroughly in the sauce with a spatula. Cover claypot with lid and simmer down for about 2 minutes, or until the sauce is reduced to liking. Stir in the basil leaves while the contents are still hot. Serve with steamed rice.

Ingredients Used: basil • chilli • cornstarch • eggplant • garlic • red chilli • shallot • soybean paste • spring onion • sugar