i love my family. but sometimes, family makes me behave in unnatural-me manners.
kylie kwong never quite engaged me as a chef. her cooking seemed to always revolve around the same few chinese ingredients-soy, sesame oil, chinese cooking wine(“to add some body”), sugar/honey. nothing exciting, different or unique from the typical chinese food repertoire. anyway, i was watching masterchef australia on youtube and during one of the masterclass, kylie was a guest judge. she prepared this eggplant dish that actually piped my interest( a 1st!). so i recreated it at dinner. with some modification because hers was literally swimming a a pool of oil and kylie was like “don’tbe afraid of the oil, it adds lots of flavour!”)
she used a whole bunch of cilantro as a flavour component and not as a garnish. good move my taste-bud says!
here’s the eggplant recipe
2 eggplant( the ones here are short(length of my hand) and stubby)
5 garlic cloves
4cm ginger
2 fresh chilli – remove seeds
2 tsp soy sauce
1 large handful coriander(stems and all)-chopped,
1 tsp sichuan peppercorn
3 tsp salt
roughly chop up the eggplants and boil them till cooked. drain and set aside. rough grind/chop and garlic+ginger and chilli. cook them till fragrant then add the soy sauce and cook just a bit more. toss in the boiled eggplants and coriander ( i did not cook this any further since my eggplants were already very soft). grind the peppercorn and salt together. sprinkle some on top of the dish before eating.
and here is kylie’s original version: http://www.masterchef.com.au/stir-fried-eggplant-with-homemade-chilli-sauce.htm
