Sichuan “Fish-Fragrant” Eggplant: A Bold and Tasty Recipe

Introduction

Despite its name, the dish called “fish” contains no fish. Hailing from the province of Sichuan in China, the term “yu xiang” (孚香) literally means “fish fragrance”, referring to a flavor profile initially used for cooking fish dishes native to that region. This notoriously piquant but handsomely tasty spice mixture, which often will include pickled chilies, fermented bean paste, green onions, garlic, and ginger, has become so popular that nowadays it is used to spice up everything from vegetable stir-fries to meat stews.

Savory Sichuan food is usually identified with a refined wok stir-fry technique. This involves extremely hot temperatures and rapid folding over, so ensuring uniformly cooked, but at the same time not mixed up, food. Such a powerful eggplant-based stir-fry can easily be made with your simple cooktop, following the guidelines that we have set out below to enable you to reproduce the particular smells and textures of this dish in your own kitchen.

When selecting your oil

If you want to truly call out the full level of savory flavors involved in this dish, you should use animal fats like schmaltz or lard when searing the eggplant and stir-frying the sauce. Peanut oil adds a nice nutty flavor; however, really any vegetarian oil will do nicely, such as canola. We recommend adding in the last two minutes of cooking a couple of tablespoons of toasted sesame oil, which maximizes the aroma potential during cooking. This is true no matter which variety of cooking oil you choose to use.

Selecting your plug eggplant

Although this recipe can be prepared with whatever variety of eggplant suits your needs, this is traditionally done with Chinese eggplants. As its name suggests, this vegetable is longer and more slender in shape than the globe eggplant that is most often found in North America. Its skin is thinner, and even the flesh is softer and silkier after cooking.

Use Chinese eggplants when you can find them. In the following process of slicing the eggplant into large pieces, two bites in size, you will have to make sure that they are evenly coated with kosher salt and left for twenty to thirty minutes so the moisture inside them can be pulled out: Through this process, the eggplant will become more sensitive, and we will be able to get that creaminess we need.

We will dust the eggplant with cornstarch and pan-fry it in two stages, so we can actually cook this dish without having to deep fry the eggplant in a wok over a roaring high flame at home. There needs to be medium constant heat, with a thin layer of oil always on the bottom of the pan, and the eggplant tossed around every minute so it would become a golden color, even through each piece.

During this process, the eggplants are slightly cooked; hence, they are softened but maintain their shape. Meanwhile, because the cornstarch melts slowly into the sauce it will thicken into a rich, glossy consistency that coats each piece of eggplant. This will be when the eggplants return to the pan in order to finish cooking until they are tender at your preferred softness. What heat should be used?

For this dish, the first thing that catches your eyes and mouth (“fragrant”) seems ironically incongruous because Sichuan food has become notorious for its incredible tolerance of spiciness.

This dish is often flavored with a special variety of fermented broad bean paste referred to as doubanjiang and a special variety of pickled peppers indigenous to Sichuan. There are several different kinds of chili bean sauces and fermented black bean sauces sold at Lee Kum Kee’s retail stores. Of all that we can readily find in North America, these sauces probably come closest to the original Pixian type.

Since I only had sambal oelek, which is usually stocked where Sriracha is, I substituted it for the pickled peppers. However, you can substitute that with fresh Thai chilies thinly sliced. I’m also using ground Sichuan peppercorns for that tingly numbing spice warmth, and some dried chilies for a touch of smokiness in order to layer on a different kind of flavor and heat. Both are optional but if you’re an adrenaline junkie fueled by Scoville, you definitely shouldn’t miss one of these.

The recommended way of chopping the dried chilies is to open the chilies so that the seeds would come out. If you want a flavorful meal but less heat, then keep it intact and avoid crushing it on the pieces while still eating it. A two-vinegar tale This recipe uses rice wine vinegar and Chinese black vinegar, sometimes called Chinkiang vinegar.

Still, if you can’t find the latter, you can just use more of the former.

A more pronounced sweetness and flavor than black, but blacks have this stronger, molasses-like, almost medicinal quality of acidity that enhances the dish. And yet, the two work well to create a soothing combination of earthy and fresh tones in the arrangement. And you can eat it without meat! While some variations of the fish-flavored eggplant include ground pork for the sake of making the flavors even richer and more umami, ours doesn’t.

If you want a purely vegan version of the sauce, then you can use water or vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth. It’s worth noting, however, that we do add the chicken broth to the sauce.

So much goodness in this dish (including an entire head of garlic, actually), though chicken broth will be a shot of more umami, there’s also tons of other delightful flavors buried in there and they’ll save you for the eggplant ecstasy. Some words on MSG It’s quite all right to omit it if you don’t have it around or if you just don’t care to use it.

MSG, monosodium glutamate. For me, it tastes a little salty, a little sweetish, funky all together at the same time. Not necessarily easily identifiable, and it is really one of those mystery spices that are great.

END. Since it is often part of the seasonings for all of my favorite packaged chips, I should not be surprised to report that I am in love with it.

Although there is plenty of sodium already in the recipe because of the 20-minute express salt cure, and even the soy sauce and bean paste, it is definitely worth tasting your way through this dish and adding a pinch of salt if you feel it will get anywhere near the degree of salt that you want. Leftovers of this recipe are still very much tastier on the second day, pack them in an airtight container and keep them in the refrigerator, and you can eat them cold or warm-whichever you like. It goes quite nicely with steamed rice.

Let us know how much you enjoyed this recipe by rating it, telling us how much you enjoyed it, and leaving a line down below in the comments section if you’ve tried it! Awaiting your arrival are our recipes for baked eggplant parm and grilled eggplant, in case you’ve fallen in love with eggplants at this moment.

Ingredients

3 Chinese eggplants (1 1/4 pound), cut lengthwise into thick diagonal strips
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Canola oil
optional 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorn
6–12 dried red chilies (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped pickled chili, sambal oelek, or Thai chili slices
Three tablespoons fermented chili bean paste
1 minced, divided head of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper, ground
3 thinly sliced, split green onions
1 Low-sodium soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon
1 1/2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp. Chinese black vinegar
4-tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp MSG (optional)
1/2 cup water or low-sodium chicken broth
2-tsp. toasted sesame oil
Cooked serving rice

Direction

Step 1

Salt eggplant evenly in a big basin. Let sit for 20–30 minutes, then gently press out excess moisture. Wring out and dry with paper towels. Stir cornstarch into eggplant in a dry bowl or sheet tray to coat evenly.

Step 2

Heat 2 tbsp oil until it smokes in a large skillet over medium heat, 1 minute. Do not crowd the pan; fry eggplant in batches until just lightly browned on all sides, 3–4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. If the skillet dries out, add more oil and repeat with the remaining eggplants.

Step 3

Put the empty skillet back on medium-low heat and add 2 tablespoons oil. Add Sichuan peppercorn, chilis, bean paste, half garlic, ginger, white pepper, and half green onions. Stir the garlic at times until fragrant and just browned for 1 minute.

Step 4

Return the eggplants to the pan. Add soy sauce, vinegars, sugar, MSG, if using, and water or broth; stir frequently over medium-low heat until thickened and glossy. Add sesame oil, remaining garlic, and green onions at the last minute.

Step 5

Add rice if you like.

Conclusion

Sichuan “Fish-Fragrant” The Sichuan eggplant is, despite its name, a deliciously fragrant dish with no fish at all. The fish-fragrant flavors of ginger, garlic, chili paste, and fermented bean sauce bring eggplant to life with this saucy mixture, which is sharp and slightly sweet, spicy, and savory, with silky soft and velvety eggplant. This meal has fascinated food aficionados as it is full of tastes, spiciness, and the umami richness of Sichuan.

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