or….. FIRE IN MY WOK !
Yes, it is really me. After a spell in Hospital and subsequent recuperation at home under the very competent and (sometimes strict) care of my beloved “Head nurse Jo”, I am at last again able to do my bit in the kitchen and ‘talk with you’ via the computer.
For starters let me explain something here – I do love meat of nearly any kind, but I find that as I get older I end up eating less meat and also I am pretty certain that I will never become a true vegetarian, I started to enjoy quite often meals without any meat.
So therefore today I post a “no meat” dish which again I picked up during my time on the island of Trinidad. I love this one in particular because it gives me the right spice kick whenever I need it without making a proper curry. Also it takes me only 10 to 15 minutes to bring this to the table.
It’s wonderful just on its own (as in my picture) served with plain boiled Basmati rice or serve it as a side dish to most chicken- and/or burger dishes.
Regarding the heat, that of course is entirely up to you and the tolerance of your palate.
Don’t worry regarding any exact measurements, just take what I did for this post as a guide line and go for it and…..if you like ‘heat’ you will like this.
What you see in my photographs here today is for 2 people as a light meal or for 1 very greedy and hungry person.
1 x large aubergine, washed, topped and tailed and cut into bite sized cubes
1 x large onion, finely sliced
2-3 x small red hot chillies, very finely sliced
A small piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
3-4 x cloves of garlic, very finely sliced (our garlic here is not very strong, so try out yours)
1 x Tbsp soft brown sugar
½ to 1 Tbsp of Chilli Sauce (I used one of my decade old favourite: “Lingham’s Chilli Sauce”)
1x Tbsp and a bit of red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 x Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
Some vegetable stock, I used a Knorr Stock cube.
1. Wash your rice (1/2 cup dry makes 1 full cup cooked) until water runs clear. Soak rice for 15 minutes, then cook until ready (it takes me just another 15 minutes or so).
2. Keep prepared aubergines in a colander, sprinkle with salt, mix, cover and let sit for 15 minutes to extract water.
3. Heat oil in wok, add onion, ginger, garlic, chilli and stir-fry for a few seconds and then add the aubergines (make sure to dry them first in a clean dish clothes), stir and cook on medium heat for around 2 minutes more.
4. Add all your sauces, sugar, vinegar, stock, salt and pepper, stir gently, cover and simmer for maybe another 10 minutes. Check. Don’t let aubergines get too soft and mushy.
That’s it, just check your spices and serve on a bed of fluffy basmati rice.
Enjoy this Medley my friends. We are off to the Dining room now to have our own supper of this dish.
Have a good and peaceful week-end.
Carina
Anyone 4 Curry & Other Things 
Thanks: I now know what to do with that eggplant sitting in my crisper! I’ll happily have this as a full meal but with my usual brown rice . . . love your mixture of the East and West as I doubt that hoisin is widely used in Trinidad tho’ I oft use it in marinades here. The heat should be about right for me if I leave the seeds in the small chillies or use an orange one, but using our big, strong garlic I would tone it down to two – shall tell you after 🙂 ! So glad to see your infection has finally died down and you feel like delighting us again: take care !!
thanks Eha – I thought you are in temporary hibernation:) 🙂 :)? Thanks for talking with me here thou. There was in my time a strong chinese community in T & T and remember, I learned a few things in the kitchen of Suzie Wong – and Hoisin was around then. Our garlic sadly is so weak that I have to use maybe 5 to 1 of yours. Btw – letter is coming soon. Infection gone (I hope) but cough still hanging on a bit – what a nuisance! Rips healing???
*smile* Methinks I do not know the meaning of ‘hibernation’!! Yes, watching absolutely wonderful cycling until about 3am every night [four mountains to climb tonight in the beautiful Pyrenees!] with another fortnight to go, already needing matchsticks to keep my eyes open in daytime: but one does need to pop into the letterbox !! And amidst piles of work do a bit of ‘visiting’ !! And learning: interesting why there should be a sizable Chinese community in T&T – and that probably means all the other Chinese ‘suspects’ in cooking as well!!! About a week or so to go before I am allowed to do much after the rib fractures but most pain gone if I am careful . . . never again if I can help it 🙂 !!
🙂 🙂 – wait for my letter!
schöne Auswahl an Möglichkeiten, danke, alles Gute, ansonsten bin ich noch am Verarbeiten unserer Niederlage, trotzdem wünsche ich ein schönes Wochenende
Es tut mir echt leid fuer all’ die Fussball Fans in Deutschland – aber nur eine Mannschaft konnte leider gewinnen. Und wer wird es am Sonntag sein????Danke fuers rein schauen und ich wuensche auch ein schoenes Wochenende. Tschuess 🙂
A lot of people think a main dish isn’t a main dish unless it has meat in it, but you’ve shown otherwise here.
You’re probably aware that in the United States we say eggplant rather than aubergine, though I know it from French. I see now that the word has a distant origin:
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=aubergine
There’s a restaurant chain over here called P.F. Chang’s. I don’t often eat in restaurants, but when I go to that one I usually get an eggplant dish similar to yours. Yummy.
Steve, here we call them ‘eggplant’, too or betterഎഗ്പ്ലാന്റ്! ! ! 🙂 🙂 (same) In Germany we have adopted many words from french, and so I think “aubergine” is stuck with me. Thanks for the link, thou. Funny, that you should enjoy “My Calypso Medley” at P.F. Chang’s. Try mine and tell me which is mor to your liking…..:) 🙂
What a delicious use for eggplant Carina! I hope that you’re ok Carina? A trip to the hospital doesn’t sound pleasant at all! 😦
thanks Lorraine, it is really delicious! Hospitals are never nice, right! But I am ok now – thanks 🙂 🙂
I am thinking this would be good with other vegetables as well, e.g. cauliflower.
Hallo Juliana – nice to see you here; and you are quite right, cauliflower in particular is nice (but I did not want to confuse the issue here – hence onle aubergine/eggplant 🙂 ).
I suddenly have the urge for eggplant!
welcome to my Blog, Robert. I suggest you make this dish (good with cauliflower, too) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Its always better to be vegetarian ,rest its personal choice
🙂 🙂 🙂
Looks really tasty. We’re growing Japanese eggplants this summer and they’re so easy to prepare and versatile.
Thanks Karina – but, I now will have to google immediately in order to ‘see’ what Japanese eggplants look like 🙂 🙂 – we love them all – whatever their “nationality” 🙂 🙂 🙂
This dish looks amazing and I am sure it will taste the same. I really like the way you explained the recipe, by tagging each ingredient so meticulously. Being a vegetarian/vegan, I guess I will try this out some time. Thank you for sharing these recipes.
Amitav, thanks for your input. We have a slight surplus on aubergines/eggplants – so I will come up very soon with one or two more dishes, which should hopefully please many vegetarian hearts. 🙂
That’s awesome. 🙂
You have a wonderful blog and I really liked the way you present the recipes. Best wishes to you.
Thank you Amitav – hope to see you here soon again. Take care.