Hot and Sweet and Sour Eggplant

I have been on a real eggplant kick lately. This happens to me every so often, especially this time of year, when I find myself reaching for them reflexively at the farmers’ market, dazzled by their many shapes and jewel-like purple (purple!) skins. Whatever prejudices you might harbor about their taste, they are surely some of most pleasing vegetables to look at.

Eggplants are not, however, the most tractable of the late-summer vegetables. They are easy to cook badly. They cook down to a flavorless mush, or they guzzle all your olive oil and then, spitefully, burn anyway. Their beautiful skins harden into undigestible hides. I know these things; they have all happened to me. Repeatedly. And yet…

And yet, there is something that appeals to me about their recalcitrance. Eggplants must, we are told, be ceremonially salted ahead of time; they have to weep out their bitter tears before working their magic. (There’s more poetry in that than you’ll find in an obliging tomato!) When eggplants are treated with a little care, they melt in your mouth and ooze with flavor, at once briny and smoky. When they are cooked well, they become, I think, the perfect food.

It may have been the same perverse spirit that attracted me to this eggplant dish of all others, which caught my eye in a negative recipe review over at The Kitchn. Despite the warnings of the reviewer, I couldn’t quite believe that Top Chef Kenny’s Hot and Sour Eggplant wouldn’t be every bit just as delicious as it looked in the photograph, with a few modifications. So, taking the suggestions of the reviewer to heart, I tweaked it liberally, and arrived at the recipe below.

This is the first eggplant recipe I have landed on that seems to work every time. I’ve made it with delicate young farmers’ market eggplants and tired old grocery store ones; it doesn’t seem to matter much. I’ve had it over rice and whole wheat couscous and Israeli couscous, skipped the red pepper, used store-bought curry powder instead of preparing my own, substituted chickpeas for tofu at the end depending on what’s on hand. No matter what, the tender, spicy, slow-cooked eggplant always seems to be exactly what I am craving when I take my first bite.

The one piece of this I would not vary: Do not be tempted to skip the step you find at the beginning of almost every eggplant recipe, which is to salt and drain the eggplant before cooking. After much recent trial and error, I have decided it is totally worth the extra effort, and it won’t even slow you down much if you leave the eggplant to drain while you are readying the other vegetables. It serves the triple purpose of extracting bitterness, concentrating flavor and removing excess liquid so the eggplant sautees more easily. Win, win, win.

Hot and Sweet and Sour Eggplant
Serves 4

2 onions, diced
1/4 cup vegetable oil

curry paste:
2 cloves garlic, diced or grated
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric

1 or 2 red bell peppers, chopped
2 large eggplants (or equivalent), peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1 block tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

juice of 1-2 limes and 1 lemon
zest from 1 lemon
salt
cilantro leaves, chopped

Toss eggplant with two teaspoons of salt in a colander, let drain 30 minutes. Rinse eggplant, then drain again, pressing gently on eggplant to extract excess liquid.

Pound the curry spices together with mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon. In large pot, saute the onions in oil over medium heat until translucent. Add curry paste. Add peppers. Stir in the eggplant and turn up heat to medium-high. After 5 minutes, or when eggplant is beginning to brown, stir in coconut milk, sugar, and cinnamon stick and let simmer 20 minutes. Gently stir in tofu and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add the lemon and lime juice and zest and salt to taste. Mix in cilantro. Serve over rice or couscous.