Chinese Cuisine

Shanghai style stir-fry eggplant with garlic and soy sauce

Cuisine: Chinese Created by Chris Yan

I am a big lover of eggplant. I have been cooking it in so many ways over the years, and still love it. I am never sick of it. This is a very simple and a traditional Shanghai home-cooked dish. Every family in Shanghai has their own way to cook it and uses the exact same ingredients. The woman in Shanghai who is the best cook for this dish is very special. She is my mum. So I believe the best seasoning in the world is memories.

You might also enjoy Thai-style chicken stir-fry, often served at breakfast topped with a deep-fried egg, sunny-side up. For a family friendly meal, try our Mongolian lamb stir-fry recipe, which uses lamb backstrap, shallots and baby spinach. Otherwise, browse our collection of stir-fry recipes.

Ingredients

500g Japanese eggplant (also known as Lebanese)
5 tbsp oil
1 large red chilli, roughly cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic, bruised
200ml water
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water, extra

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Preparation

Cut or snap the eggplant into 5cm thick pieces. Heat oil in wok until shimmering. Add, chilli and garlic cloves and cook for 20-30 seconds. Remove chilli and reserve.

Add eggplant and gently stir-fry. When eggplants have soaked up all of the oil, add 1 tbsp of the water. Keep adding water, a tbsp at a time until eggplants are soft and you have used half of the water.

Stir in dark soy sauce and sugar. Stir well and add remaining water. Cover with lid and cook for 1 minute. Uncover, the liquid should have been absorbed. Return chilli to wok, toss for 30 seconds and serve.

Eat immediately, but watch out the temperature very hot! Seriously!

Chinese Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 813 Chinese Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Eastern Garden Chinese Restaurant	Toorak Gardens
2.	Zen	Magill
3.	Greenwood Seafood Restaurant	North Sydney
4.	Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab	Sydney
5.	Dragonfly Theatre & Cabaret Restaurant	Tullamarine
6.	Asian Cafe	City
7.	The Chairman and Yip	City
8.	China Tea Club	Lyneham
9.	Lakeview Restaurant	Tuggeranong
10.	Leong Kitchen	Campbell

27 Jan 2012 08:28 AEST

Lynn

Ottawa, Canada

Yum!

Delicious, fast, easy. Love this recipe! Seems pretty authentic to me. I'm sure my Chinese (Malaysian) mom would approve, but maybe my Chinese (HK) dad wouldn't. But China is a big place and if a Chinese mom cooks it at home, that makes it Chinese homestyle in my books.

30 May 2010 09:25 AEST

chifufunie

Brisbane

it is definitely a chinese dish

I am a Malaysian-Chinese and I grew up eating this dish. I love eggplants and mum cooks it a lot. I guess not every Chinese family has this dish but if you come to Malaysia, every Chinese restaurants serve this dish :) I love it!

30 Jun 2009 04:03 AEST

Dream

Vermont Vic

Easy as - Quick meal

Dont care if its authentic or not, its a great recipe, and very easy and quick to make. Add heaps of chilli to make it hotter for the chilli heads like me!

27 Mar 2009 09:30 AEST

vered

israel

great

Loved the dish. it is easy to cook and very tasty

10 Jan 2009 11:10 AEST

Arjuna

Wanniassa

Simple and superb

Have prepared this dish a few times now. It is easy to prepare and has been a big hit.

07 Jan 2009 11:59 AEST

Peter Sun

Thornbury

misleading Shanghai-style stir-fry eggplant

This absolutely isnt Shanghai-styled eggplant dish. I love and grow up with my mother-cooked shanghai-styled stir-fry eggplant dish. this one is absolutely rubbish. he even didnt know how to chop eggplant finely in Shanghai-style. what a great fun.

16 Dec 2008 09:30 AEST

Ashley

brunswick west

great

this is great as a side to any meal with rice. I added some fresh ginger too for a little extra complexity. delicious!

02 Dec 2008 11:32 AEST

Xenia

Cairns

It is not real Chinese dish!

Grown up in China, I have never seen anyone cooking eggplant like this. I can't understand SBS would have shown it in Food Safari. Why can't we have really Chinese food in Australia?

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