Meat!

I've discussed my penchant for braised eggplant here before, and speculated about other possible seasoning for it than I used in my original recipe. Since my roommate is very vegetarian, my fish sauce consumption has really gone down lately. I have since tryed soy sauce and ginger, which was not bad but was missing some of that delicious tanginess contributed by the fish sauce. But at last we have a winner....

It's all about the black bean sauce.

two eggplants + a brick of soft tofu.

Might do half a brick of tofu though. It's good to have some to contrast with the eggplant, since the eggplant really sucks up the braising liquid and the tofu does not, so you get chunks of relatively bland and salty. But I think we could have done with a little less tofu... when we boxed up the leftovers it was mostly tofu left. Do the initial browning in sesame oil with a dash of sesame chili oil. first throw in a few of those big whole dried chiles that you see in sezchuan recipes sometimes. when those start to smell a little burnt, then put in the eggplant.

the key is the braising liquid.

• three heaping teaspoons of black bean garlic sauce. "teaspoons" here is not even really a measurement... take a teaspoon and dig out of the jar as big a heap of that stuff as will sit on it, then do that twice more.
• three or four large cloves of garlic. yes. more garlic.
• a big old chunk of ginger, grated. maybe 2.5 or 3 inches.
• a splash of rice vinegar.
• vegetable broth. maybe a cup or so.

Put the tofu in at the same time as the braising liquid. Cover till the eggplant is mushy and then reduce.

Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and green onion (which I forgot this time) just before serving with rice.

This is very tasty, but soft eggplant and soft tofu need something to contrast... I'd suggest some crisp vegetables. Some sort of slightly bitter green would be good. On the other hand, we had a jicama/cucumber/carrot/thai chile pepper/lime-ok-well-lemon salad. Both had a kind of subtle, not-overpowering sneaky heat to them.