Fuchsia Dunlop's Cool Steamed Aubergine With Dressing
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20 minutes prep time
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30 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Chinese food scholar, Fuchsia Dunlop, shares the easy-to-make cool steamed aubergine with dressing recipe. From Land of Fish & Rice.
This Shanghainese appetiser is absurdly easy to make and wondrously satisfying. Steaming brings out a gentle, unfamiliar side to a vegetable that is more commonly fried, baked or grilled, and, simple as they are, the seasonings taste sublime. Use Mediterranean aubergines or, if you can find them, the slender purple Chinese variety. I was introduced to this recipe by my Shanghainese friend Jason Li.
Ingredients Serves: 4
- 500g aubergines
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
- 1½ tbsp thinly sliced spring onions, green parts only
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
Method
- Cut the aubergines lengthways into 1cm slices, then cut these into 1cm strips. Cut the strips into bite-sized lengths and pile them into a bowl that will fit inside your steamer basket.
- Place the bowl in the steamer basket and steam over a high flame for 20 minutes, until tender.
- Combine the soy sauce, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl.
- Shortly before you wish to serve them, pile the aubergines in a serving dish and top them with the garlic, ginger and spring onion.
- Heat the oil in a seasoned wok or saucepan over a high flame until it is very hot.Carefully ladle the hot oil over the garlic, ginger and spring onions – it should produce a dramatic sizzle.
- Pour over the soy sauce mixture. Stir the seasonings gently into the aubergines and serve.
Extract taken from Land of Fish and Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop, Bloomsbury, £26, Hardback. Photography © 2012 by Chris Terry
