Stir-fried Eggplant

You know what else we did after we were all hot, sweaty and mosquito bitten but happy with pints and pints of freshly picked raspberries in the car? We cranked up the air conditioning, plugged in the trusty little GPS and went to another farm for veggies! Susies Garden Patch was just a few more miles down the road, past the baby ducks and the funky quail looking critters, past the horses, past the barns, and past the acres and acres of corn and soy as far as the eye can see. I was very close to stealing a cute little yellow fuzzy baby ducky but then I saw the papa duck...and decided to move along.

The veggies on the farm were a little disorganized, but that made hunting for them more fun. They had a bunch of zucchini plants with zucchinis the size of your leg. Those suckers were huge! They had rows and rows of tomatoes, and we made sure to pick up the pretty Roma ones. One or two may have not made it into the basket, memory is a but fuzzy. There was a long row of different kinds of peppers, going from hot peppers to green peppers to purple peppers, but my favorites were the eggplants.



I love eggplant, it goes great with everything. Baba ganoush, layered in lasagna, cooked with goat cheese and chorizo, yum! But lately, my favorite recipes are ones that can be made in just a few minutes, and I think I've gotten this one down to 5. How can you beat that? So here it is, my 5 minute meal:



Stir-fried Eggplant
by Me
Serves 2

2 small shiny eggplants, or 2 long Chinese eggplants
A bit of olive oil
A drizzle of soy sauce
A healthy squirt of Hoisin sauce
A touch of Sriracha hot sauce
A generous dash of garlic powder
2 or 3 tablespoons of water
A pretty bunch of green onion for garnish

- Slice the eggplant into even pieces about an inch or two long and maybe a half inch thick.
- Pour a bit of olive oil into a large pan set over medium high heat and layer the eggplant over it.
- As the eggplant starts to cook, open the fridge door and start pulling bottles out. First, pour some soy sauce into the pan, standing a bit back to avoid the possible spatter. Then pull out the Hoisin sauce and draw a few circles with it in the pan. Lastly, pull out the Sriracha hot sauce and add as much as you feel you can handle.
- Sprinkle some garlic powder over the whole thing and add the water.
- Stir everything together to make sure the eggplant is well coated, cover and cook for a few minutes, coming back to stir often, until the eggplant is tender.
- Server over a small pile of steamed rice and garnish with chopped green onion.