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| New photo updated Oct. 2012. |
You might think shrimp and eggplant are an odd combination, unless you've had this dish at dim sum. I love it. Mom still finds it weird to have me snapping shots around her and trying to note every little detail, but I got the recipe! In exchange, I showed her how to make sweet potato biscuits, which I'll be posting soon.
The eggplant is sliced on the diagonal, and then sliced again (but not all the way through) to create a pocket to hold the shrimp. The slices are then filled with shrimp, and browned in the pan. Because eggplant sucks up oil like a sponge, eggplant dishes can be greasy. Mom uses the Chinese method of quickly frying for color and flavor, then steaming the rest of the way through to avoid more oil absorption. The dish is finished off with the usual oyster sauce, and Mom's addition of mirin adds complexity. Use Japanese eggplants, which are slender and long, rather than the short and bulbous Italian variety.
