Chinese sweet and sour eggplant

Kitchen appliances and utensils: an electric stove, a colander, paper towels, several bowls of different depths and capacities, a cutting board and a sharp knife, a kitchen scale and other measuring accessories, a garlic press, a large-diameter frying pan with high sides, a wooden spatula.

Ingredients

Step cooking

Product Preparation

1. First of all, thoroughly wash four small eggplants with running water, then wipe them with paper towels and cut off the tails. Cut the prepared vegetables into fairly large pieces, which we put in a deep bowl.
   
2. Pour 100 g of potato starch there, after which we actively roll the eggplants in a dry mixture.
   
3. Two large bell peppers are cut in half, and then we remove the core and seeds. We cut the sweet vegetable in the same large slices as the eggplant.
   
4. Cut the chili pepper in half and peel it. If you are a fan of very spicy dishes, then do not remove the innards of chili. Cut the chili into small strips or medium cubes. We clear the average onion from the husk, then divide it in half, and then cut each half lengthwise and crosswise into four parts. We clean, wash three large cloves of garlic, and then finely chop them with a knife.
   
5. Large enough cut a bunch of fresh cilantro and a bunch of green onions.
   

Sweet and sour sauce

1. Pour 70 ml of bottled water into a separate cup, add 20 g of starch there. Stir the ingredients well until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. Pour 120 ml of soy sauce, 60 ml of rice vinegar and 20 ml of vegetable oil into a deep small bowl.
   
2. There we add 40 g of granulated sugar and stir the components until the crystals of the latter are completely dissolved. Squeeze 4 cloves of garlic into the resulting aromatic mixture using a garlic squeezer. Once again, thoroughly stir everything and leave the sauce to infuse for 10-15 minutes.
   

We are preparing the product

1. Throw the sliced ​​eggplant into a colander or sieve, and then shake off excess starch. In a pan with high sides, pour about 500 ml of vegetable oil.
   
2. As soon as the oil is very hot, carefully dip the eggplant slices into it. Fry the vegetable over high heat for 5 minutes until a rosy color appears.
   
3. Do not immediately lay out all the eggplants, it is best to fry them in 2-3 doses, then each piece will reach the desired consistency. Fried eggplants are thrown into a colander or paper towels to remove excess oil.
   
4. The oil remaining after frying the eggplant is poured into a separate container, leaving about 30 ml in the pan. Dip chopped garlic in boiling oil.
   
5. Literally in 20 seconds we add onions to garlic. Next we send the bell pepper and fry the vegetables over high heat with intensive and constant stirring for 3 minutes.
   
6. After the specified time, add the fried eggplant and pour the cooked sauce. Stir everything well and continue frying vegetables over high heat.
   
7. After about a couple of minutes, add 10 g of tomato paste and half of the total mass of the previously prepared mixture of starch and water. Stir the ingredients and add the rest of the starch fluid. We cook the dish for another 2-4 minutes, after which we immediately lay it on plates.
   
8. Sprinkle abundantly each serving with a mixture of green onions and fresh cilantro.
   

Video recipe

This video will help you quickly understand the simple technology of preparing a wonderful eggplant dish with sweet and sour sauce.