Tamarind aubergine

‘I hate sweet and sour’

Growing up the standard of Chinese food available to us in our small northern town was not what you’d call high and the food available was not what anyone would call authentic. This has led me to gain to quirks. The first is that i have a fixation on takeaway style Chinese curry and egg fried rice as a comfort food and an almost visceral dread of of the phrase ‘sweet and sour’. This phrase conjures to mind not a contrast of sweet and sour flavor balanced and in concert but a gloopy red mess of a sauce. The recipe here is my attempt to redeem this basic idea.

The sauce
Sugar,
Dried chili (flakes or chopped)
Soy sauce
Garlic (chopped)
Tamarind paste (or you can make tamarind water but that is a pain)

This is a balance one so basically just add everything together.
Bring the mixture to a boil let cool and taste then add ingredients until you get a tangy slightly sour sauce with a hint of chili sauce.

The aubergine
Aubergines
Flour (seasoned)
Milk
Lots of oil

Slice the aubergine into one into rounds then quarter
Dredge the aubergine in flour by dipping in milk then coating in flour
Deep fry until brown

Stir fry some onions (quickly so they do that cool sweet crunchy Chinese onion thing) add the aubergine and sauce serve over rice.

Comments

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