This week I taught a Sichuan cooking class at ICE in Manhattan, and one of the many great recipes we did was a Sichuan eggplant recipe I first posted in October, 2008. And I thought, why not revisit fish-fragrant eggplant on this blog too? With an aromatic sauce made with chili bean paste, soy sauce, black vinegar, and Sichuan pepper, this dish has proven to be irresistible, even to people who claim to not like eggplant. So why “fish-fragrant”, you ask? Well, there’s no seafood in the dish, but read on to find out…
Eggplant is one of those vegetables that almost begs for strong, pungent spices and sauces. And one of the most popular vegetable dishes in Sichuan cooking is “fish-fragrant eggplant”, an unfortunate literal translation of the Chinese name (鱼香茄子 yuxiang qiezi) without the cultural nuance. You see, it doesn’t actually smell or taste like fish. Rather, the name refers to method of preparation usually associated with fish in Sichuan cuisine that results in hot, sour, salty, and sweet flavors all co-mingling on the plate.
Some versions use dried red chilis for spiciness, while others use ground chili flakes. Some recipes written for the overseas market eschew Sichuan peppercorn, since the ingredient may be hard to find. I like to use both Sichuan peppercorn and 豆瓣酱 (dou ban jiang), a chili bean paste with fava beans that you may recall from some other Sichuan dishes like dry-fried green beans and twice-cooked pork. Vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar complete the four-flavors balance, with additional seasonings for background support.
Rather than deep-frying, like many other recipes call for, I like to use just a bit of oil and stir-fry until the outsides are golden brown. This seems to result in a less oily, but still flavorful, eggplant dish. For meatier oomph, you can also add a bit of minced pork and stir-fry it with the garlic and ginger.
__________________________________________
Sichuan Fish-Fragrant Eggplant
Serves 4 as part of multi-course meal
1 1/2 pounds Asian eggplant
2 tablespoons chicken stock, or substitute water
2 tablespoons chili bean paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar, or substitute good-quality balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
Scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
- Slice each eggplant in half lengthwise, then slice each length into quarters. Cut each quarter in somewhat substantial, but still bite-sized, cubes (about 1 1/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch cubes).
- Prepare the sauce: In a small bowl, mix together the chicken stock, chili bean paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, and sugar. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and swirl the pan to coat the base and sides. Add the eggplants and stir-fry until outsides become golden brown and insides begin to soften, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorn and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the sauce mixture and mix well. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes to allow the eggplant to full cook and the sauce to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, plate, and sprinkle scallions on top.
__________________________________________
Other Asian eggplant recipes to try:
- Hunan Eggplant with Bacon and Shiitakes
- Eggplant, Cumin, and Black Bean Salad
- Hmong Spicy Eggplant from Viet World Kitchen
- Vietnamese Eggplant with Shrimp Paste from Wandering Chopsticks
- Grilled Eggplant and Mushroom Miso Soup from Just Hungry
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
This is one of my favourite dishes, I usually add minced pork and shiitake mushrooms. The aubergines go all soft and melt into the sauce, lovely!
There are so many versions of this dish, but yours looks just devine. I normally skip the frying of the eggplant all together, just simmer it in the sauce. But your photo of the stirfried eggplant looks so lovely, I think I will try it once again.
I love your recipes, cause I always have the ingredients at home but just don’t know how to use them together! You bring the Chinese back in me! So thank you! I am DEFINITELY making this tonight. A frequent that I make also is the noodles with hot bean sauce.
you dont have to ask me twice, once is enough and I will ask for a big plate of this….
I LOOOOVE eggplant!!! Def. need the 豆瓣酱 :D
beautiful photo and wonderful recipe. i never used to like aubergine but once i got started on properly cooked ones, i was hooked. this recipe makes me miss my gramma..
….to make this at home! It looks way too delicious, which means it is just delicious enough!! I liked your “hot, sour, salty, and sweet flavors all co-mingling on the plate” comment. What’s better than that to make a person happy?! Thanks for sharing…your photos are über-cool too!
鱼香茄子is one of my absolute favorite chinese dishes. when i lived in boston i found a place with a great version of this dish and formed a three-year addiction! i’m moving to china soon and i can’t wait to get my mouth on this again. all the times that i’ve tried at home, it’s never turned out quite right. perhaps i’ll have to try again.
I have been cooking quite a lot of eggplant recently because they are in season now in Singapore! it’s quite cheap also. So… I’ll try your recipe this or next week. :)it looks so….yummy!
This is so great!
I had this dish so many times in chinese restaurants but i never had the clue on how to make it. Thanks for the recipe. I will give it a try! :-)
This looks delicious! I love spicy eggplant dishes:-)
The strong pungent flavours are wonderful here – great dish!
ellis – Where in Boston? I should look it up the next time I’m in town. Had a hard time finding non-Cantonese Chinese food when I lived there.
I cooked it. It is very good.
Minor modifications.
1) Substituted ground bean paste for chile paste.
2) Minced 5 red Thai chile peppers (without seeds) and added to garlic ginger stage.
3) Finally crumbled in 1/2 lb (before cooking weight) ground pork because my son will not eat if no meat.
4) Crushed the Sichuan pepper with the edge of knife on the chopping block. Did not use any ground Sichuan pepper.
5) Cut egplant to bite sized prior to cooking.
-Bob
i live in boston … the best version i have seen is at 四川饭庄 in Brookline.
This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. I stumbled upon your blog while trying to look up a recipe for Turnip Cake to email to my Caucasian bf (I am 2nd gen Chinese). Your blog is really great! I’ve been meaning to learn how to cook the traditional dishes I grew up eating, especially after years of eating American and other non-Asian food in college and beyond. I find it somewhat difficult to learn authentic ways to prepare these dishes, because I live in the US and also do not live with my parents anymore, but your blog has inspired me! I hope that many other people like me will return to their culinary roots.
Thank you for bridging the gap!
I ate this like every other day when I was in Yunnan. mmmmm I love it. looking fwd to trying your version.
Thanks!
I must try this recipe at the first opportunity I get.
Loved this recipe. Thanks!
Not really vegetarian if it contains chicken (stock), makes me a bit cautious about the Asian view of vegetarianism. I’ll switch it to vegetable stock and try it though because it sounds delicious!
I made this dish tonight using this recipe and it turned out great! I couldn’t find yellow rice wine or sichuan pepper corn, so I just used the regular rice wine and ground pepper. The flavors were awesome. I will definitely make this again :)
I have always love Yu Xiang Qie Zi after I first tasted it! I love the flavour of sweet, saltiness, spicines and sourness mixed together in this dish. Going to make it tis evening and that’s why I am checking out what’s the ingredients involved. Instead of frying the brinjal, I will steam them in order to cut down the oil in this recipe.
This recipe saved me after I lived in Sichuan for a year. I hate eggplant with a passion. It turns I don’t hate eggplant just the way it’s cooked in an oven and tastes like a sandy sponge. When I came back to the states, I had to have the the classic Sichuan style eggplant and this recipe saved my life. Excellent stuff. Also, I’d recommend that anyone making this bring along 3 little bowls so you can split up the spices to be added. There is no way you can measure out and pour 2 tablespoons of all the soy sauce and vinegar and rice wine in 1 minute, so you should do it before you start cooking and put in a cup to be dumped in all at once.
Thank you so much for this! There’s a Sichuan restaurant in Michigan near my school that served this and it was my favorite dish. Since I moved I haven’t been able to find a place that serves. Being able to make it on my own makes me so happy now.
By Chinese black vinegar, did you mean chingkiang vinegar?
I have some eggplant growing in my garden that would be perfect in this dish! Wish I could come and take a cooking class from you.
Wow, looks good! I wasn’t a fan of eggplant until I moved to China, then I ate it all the time.
This looks amazing…thanks for sharing!
Isaac – Yes, you can definitely use Chinkiang vinegar, which is the best Chinese black vinegar to use for cooking. The brand I use is Gold Plum, whose bottle has a white and yellow label on it. (If you need a visual, it’s the second bottle from the right in this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/misanthrp/2330221266/) Hope that helps!
I like eggplants whatever the recipe it is. I usually add some pork or beef to my recipe. Have you heard “Eggplant Adobo recipe”, a Filipino cuisine. Usually, this is added with pork. And it is yummy.
Here in the Philadelphia area, we have a close linguistic analog: crab fries! There is no crab or any crab-derived ingredient in crab fries, they’re just regular french fries with Old Bay seasoning all over them, which is the same seasoning mix used on steamed crabs in the mid-Atlantic region.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the combination of Old Bay seasoning and fried potatoes is so popular in this region, and the cultural connection to crab-eating is so strong, you can get “Crab Chips” (Utz) and “Old Bay Chips” (Herrs, with a picture of a crab on the bag) wherever chips are sold. Even Frito-Lay has jumped on the bandwagon with some weakly-seasoned “Crab Spice Chips.”