I'm a sucker for eggplant in any form, but really adore it in Chinese food, especially when it's tossed in a spicy garlic sauce accentuated with the gentle heat of chili. So the second I saw the cover of Hannah Che's stellar new cookbook, "The Vegan Chinese Kitchen," man, did I squeal in delight.
The picture of her Sichuan "fish-fragrant" eggplant is so luscious-looking that less than a day later, in absolute heaven, I was working my way through a steaming bowl of the dish with chop sticks. "If you aren't a fan of eggplant, it's because you haven't had this dish yet," she writes in the recipe's headnotes, and she is absolutely right: heady with garlic, with a punch of spice from red chili and fresh ginger, it's an absolute winner.
The eggplant is stir-fried to a golden, crispy finish before being braised in the sauce, resulting in creamy, delectable bits of eggplant that melt in your mouth.
