Pan-fried eggplant

Serves: 2 to 4
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Today let’s make a delicious Korean eggplant side dish that you can prepare in less than 10 minutes. It’s so simple, you might be surprised by how easy it is!

I made this recipe with European eggplants from my local grocery store, but it also works beautifully with the long, slender Korean eggplants. In fact, you can use almost any variety of eggplant.

If you’ve seen the gaji-gui recipe in my cookbook, you may remember that traditional Korean gaji-gui is usually salted first to draw out the moisture. The eggplant is then gently squeezed, seasoned, and grilled or pan-fried.

I wanted to make it simpler, so I came up with this method. Just slice the eggplant, coat it with flour, and cook it directly with the seasoning sauce. No salting or squeezing is needed.

One thing I really like about this method is that the eggplant keeps all of its natural moisture, so it turns out tender and juicy.

The key tips are coating the eggplant with flour before cooking and adding the seasoning sauce directly to the pan. The flour helps
the seasoning stick to the eggplant and gives it a light, crispy coating while keeping the inside soft and juicy.

The result is sweet, juicy, and wonderfully smoky, almost like grilled marinated meat.

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Ingredients

• 2 medium eggplants (14 ounces: about 400 grams)
• ¼ cup wheat flour
• ¼ cup or more olive oil (or vegetable, canola, corn oil)
  
  For the seasoning sauce:
  
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons mirim
• 1 tablespoon gochu-garu (Korean hot pepper flakes)
• 2 garlic cloves, mince
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Cut the eggplants lengthwise into ¼ inch-thick strips and place them on a large cutting board or tray. Sprinkle with the flour and gently toss to coat evenly. Set aside.

Make the seasoning sauce:

Combine the soy sauce, mirim, gochugaru, garlic, green onions, and toasted sesame oil in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Cook the eggplant:

• Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add about 2 tablespoons cooking oil and swirl to coat the skillet evenly.
• Add the floured eggplant strips one by one, leaving a little space between them. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the bottoms turn light brown. Turn them over, add a little more oil if needed, and cook until both sides are lightly browned and a little crispy.

• Spoon the seasoning sauce over the eggplant strips. Turn them over with a spatula and cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until the sauce is heated through and lightly absorbed.

• Remove from the heat and transfer the eggplant strips to a large plate, seasoned side up. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve right away with rice and other side dishes. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in a skillet before serving, if desired.

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