asian fried eggplant

fried eggplant asian style

My eggplant had to be cooked up tonight it was starting to look not so good. It can be a tricky vegetable for me. I often create a mushy platter however there seems to be two solid ways that come out consistently: grilling and frying. Since its a tid bit nippy and I'm not tryin to light up the grill, I fried some eggplant and made an asian sweet soy sauce for dipping you can surely find better ingredients for the dipping sauce, but I'm going with what I had

fried eggplant asian style

2 Japanese Eggplants 

3 C Panko japanese bread crumbs, can be found at ANY asian market

1 C Flour

1 T Corn Starch
1 t Salt
6 C Peanut Oil or Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil
3 eggs


1 C Low Sodium Soy Sauce I always like to use low sodium because you can increase saltyness but not take it away
1/4 C Ketchup
1/3 C Sugar
1 T Rice Vinegar
Sriracha to taste

Go ahead and chop up the eggplant into 1/2 inch pieces and put aside. Combine Panko, Flour, Corn Starch and Salt on a flat dish. In a separate bowl beat the eggs. 


Dip the eggplant pieces into the egg, after soaked, dredge in Panko mixture, once breaded, put on a separate dish, they are ready to be fried. Everyone has their different assembly line system, I prefer to make about 6 at a time. Continue this process until all the eggplant is breaded. 


If you have a iron pan, great, if not, any old sauce pan will work fine. My dutch oven was occupied with some coconut chicken so I just used a regular pan. :) Because I'm not completely submerging my eggplant in oil, but rather I cooking them a side at a time, I like to  heat 2 cups of oil at a time. Heat up it  up on high, and when hot enough you can tell by sprinkling a little of the panko in the pan and it'll sizzle start frying them up! Again, I like to do about 6 - 8 at a time. I fry them until they're golden on one side and flip them until they're golden on the other if you check out the pictures below, it makes more sense, I think... Fry them all up and place them on some paper towels to soak up the excess oil. 


For the sauce: stir up all the ingredients into a small sauce pan on med-high and let it simmer for about 3 minutes, let it cool down and you have yourself some yummy sauce.


Frying can be intimidating, but it's super simple and very yummy... ENJOY!

with love and a full belly,


farisita