My mom’s a huge gardener and she always has been. Even when she was a little kid, she spent her days helping my grandma in the garden. Now, even though she’s living in the middle of the city with a concrete patch for a backyard, she’s still growing as much as she can. I love going over to pick out fruits and vegetables. It’s kind of like having your own personal mini farm. And, as she always likes to remind me, it’s all completely organic.
The other day I went to pick up some shredded cheese (yes, I often get calls from my mom telling me to come home to pick up random groceries she’s boughten me) and I saw her eggplant plants. They were gorgeous. She gave me a particularly large one to take home and I was ridiculously excited. I decided to slice the eggplant into sticks and shallow fry it before tossing it in a honey garlic sauce. The benefits of high-heat shallow frying is two-fold: it ensures that the eggplant doesn’t absorb too much oil and also cooks it quickly so you have a somewhat crispy exterior and super-creamy interior.
These guys were so, so good. I texted my mom to tell her and her reply to me was: taste the freshness. Mike and I laughed for a good five minutes about it. But seriously, this eggplant is fresh!
Honey Garlic Eggplant Recipe
serves 2
- 1 large Japanese eggplant
- grapeseed oil for frying
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- toasted black sesame seeds, for garnish
- sliced green onions, for garnish
- fluffy white rice or grain of choice, to serve
Cut the eggplant into 3/4 inch sticks.
In a deep-sided skillet, heat up 1/2 inch of oil over medium to medium-high until it reaches 360°F. Fry eggplant in small batches, flipping if needed, until lightly golden brown, about two minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on a cooling rack.
In a small sauce pan, heat up a touch of oil and cook the garlic on medium heat until slightly golden, but not browned, 1-2 minutes. Add the honey, soy sauce and ground pepper. Turn the heat up to high so the honey-soy mixture bubbles, thickens and turns into caramel-sticky goodness.
Toss the eggplant with the sauce and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions. Enjoy immediately with rice or grain of choice.
Made this recipe and loved it!! I was worried about the eggplant absorbing all the oil so I coated the eggplant in egg & cornstarch mixture before frying… still came out great!
Just made this, and it was delicious.