Eggplant Stir-fry with Perilla and Ginger 大葉ナス

Again we got some Japanese groceries delivered from Weee which included some Asian eggplants. Since the delivery included quite a good number of eggplants, I had to come up with a number of different dishes to use them before they go bad. I made this dish which is new to me. I was inspired by looking at a YouTube episode. This was a perfect dish since in addition to eggplant, it uses green perilla which is growing quite well in our herb garden. As usual I treated the recipe as “advisory” and made some modifications. This is slightly sweet due to the oyster sauce and added sugar but it is also somewhat spicy from the ginger. It has a nice perilla taste as well. I think this is good served warm or cold. It’s also another item that goes well with cold sake.

Ingredients:
One asian eggplant (this was a slender long one, which is equivalent to two small Japanese eggplants), cut into quarters lengthwise and then cut on the bias into bite sized pieces.
10 green perilla leaves, finely chopped (left in the picture below).
1 tbs julienne of ginger (center in the picture below).
2 tbs oil (I used light olive oil with a splash of dark sesame oil) (divided 1 tbs each).
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp ponzu
1 tbs chicken broth (the original recipe calls for granulated chicken broth or 鶏がらスープの素 which is freeze dried granules of chicken and vegetable broth. This is an ingredient that often appears in Japanese recipes)
2 tsp salt and 1 tbs potato starch (for preparation of the eggplant)

Directions:
Salt the eggplant pieces, mix well and and let it stand for 5 minutes or more (until some moisture comes out)
Wash with cold water to remove excess salt, ring out moisture from the eggplant (left in the picture below), lightly coat with the potato starch

Add the oil to the frying pan on medium flame. When the oil is hot add the eggplant pieces turning until both sides are cooked and browned (3-4 minutes), set it aside (picture below)

Add the remaining oil to the pan on low flame add the ginger and sauté for one minute or until fragrant.
Add the perilla and sauté for one more minute. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken broth and mix.
Add back the eggplant and stir and the sauce slightly reduced (1-2 minutes).

This is another flavorful rendition of “eggplant”. I was very careful not to overcook it and have the eggplant dissolve as a result the skin had a slight crunch while the white interior was soft and creamy. It had a surprising bite of hot spiciness which took us a little while to figure out was coming from the ginger. But it added another positive note to the dish.