Crisp Eggplant with Fish Fragrant Sauce

After trying this recipe from Victor Liong, I felt like I was Heston Blumenthal. Crisp Eggplant with Fish Fragrant Sauce is a dish created by Victor Liong made with crispy fried eggplant in a sweet, tangy and sticky sauce topped with fresh herbs and chillies

Several weeks ago, I got handed over pantry items by a close friend of mine. Pantry items that they either used once or forgotten and never used at all, most have a year or less of shelf life left and they thought I got better ideas on using it compared to them hence it was given to me. A lot of the items given to me were different types of flour that I never used, there are also items such as Xanthan Gum which I never had tried cooking with at all so it was a challenge on how would I use them.

I never searched online on how to use the specific ingredients but for some reason when I was searching for some vegetable dishes I saw this Crisp Eggplant with Fish Fragrant Sauce recipe created by Victor Liong. That recipe contained most of the ingredients that were handed over to me, items like tapioca flour, rice flour and xanthan gum. Most of the sauce ingredients I also have it on my pantry so all that is left to buy are the eggplants.

To be honest Fish Fragrant Sauce is nothing new, in fact this is a popular Sichuan sauce does not contain fish or fish products as all, instead it is used primarily with Sichuan fish dishes, hence the name. I can understand why, the sweet, sour, and spicy elements are perfect with any seafood. I even had prepared a couple of dishes before with this sauce, first was the Sichuan Spicy Eggplant and Salted Fish and another one was the Fish Flavoured Shredded Pork, both were inspired by restaurant orders like Victor Liong who got the inspiration from Dainty Sichuan in Melbourne. Although it is a common sauce, Victor Liong version is much more refined, more intense, even how the eggplants was made crispy was something I haven’t tried before, it’s like chemistry and culinary arts in action together. The result was a very great dish, good crispiness with exceptional flavours.

Crisp Eggplant with Fish Fragrant Sauce

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Raymund
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: Side Dish
• Cuisine: Chinese

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Description

Crisp Eggplant with Fish Fragrant Sauce is a dish created by Victor Liong made with crispy fried eggplant in a sweet, tangy and sticky sauce topped with fresh herbs and chillies

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Eggplants

• 6 pcs Japanese eggplants, peeled and baton sliced
• oil, for deep frying

Garnishes

• 2 long red chillies, thinly sliced
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• fried shallots
• chopped coriander

Sauce

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 100 ml light soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 100 ml Chinese red vinegar
• 3 tbsp miso or Doenjang
• 2 tbsp chilli bean paste
• 2 tbsp chilli oil
• 1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 pcs birds eye chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt

Batter

• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 5 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp fine salt

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Instructions

1. In a saucepan over medium low heat combine water, sugar and honey together, whisk while cooking until sugar completely dissolves.
2. Bring heat to high then let it boil, let it boil for a couple of minutes then add the remaining sauce ingredients, bring back to a boil then lower heat to medium, simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the sauce becomes caramel like in consistency. Remove from heat then set it aside.
3. Prepare the batter, in a large bowl mix together xanthan gum and water, using a hand blender whisk it until thick in consistency. Gently add remaining ingredients and continue to mix until you have a smooth batter.
4. Fill a large wok or deep fryer with oil then heat it to 180C. Dip eggplant slices into the batter then gently place them into the fryer one at a time.
5. Deep fry in small batches for 5 minutes, in the first 3 minutes of frying try not to move them around and just leave it, once the outer layer has hardened you can separate eggplants that are stuck together. Remove from deep fryer then set it aside on a paper towel line plate.
6. Place fried eggplants on a serving platter, generously drizzle sauce on top, making sure every eggplant is coated. Top it with all of the garnishing.

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