ผัดกะเพรามะเขือ (Phat Kaphera Makhuea)

This quick and easy stir-fry pairs Japanese eggplant [1] with fragrant Thai basil and some spicy chilies. It is almost vegetarian, and can be made completely vegetarian simply by substituting the fish sauce for some soy sauce and an additional touch of sugar.

Ingredients

2 Japanese eggplants
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bird’s eye chilies, chopped
1 cup Thai basil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
Vegetable oil

When chopping the eggplant for this dish, remember that we will be cooking this dish quickly and over high heat. For the eggplants to cook in time, the pieces must be thin. My preferred method of cutting Japanese eggplant for stir fries is to quarter it lengthwise, then cut it into 2 inch pieces. This gives us sufficiently thin pieces while keeping the total number of pieces manageable (this will be important later!).

Heat about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the aromatics—minced garlic and chopped chilies. If you want a milder dish, remove the chili seeds before adding them to the pan. Fry until the aromatics are fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Next, add the eggplant pieces to the pan in a single layer. We want to sear the eggplant on all sides, which will help deepen the flavors of the dish. The way we have cut the eggplant, each piece will have roughly 3 sides—two flesh sides and one skin side. Fry the eggplant pieces without moving them for two minutes, then flip to a new side and repeat for another 2 minutes, then flip onto the third side and repeat again, for a total of about 6 minutes. You can get away with just randomly tossing the eggplant and relying on stochasticity, but for perfectly cooked eggplant it is best to flip each piece deterministically. This is why we wanted to keep the pieces thin but long when cutting—fewer flips to make!

When this process is done, the eggplant flesh on the first side should have taken on a light gold color, and begun to soften. Once this happens, add to the pan our sauce ingredients—soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar. Toss the eggplant pieces in the sauce and cook for another minute, tossing constantly, until the sauce thickens and clings to the eggplant. Then throw in the Thai basil leaves and cook for just a minute longer, tossing together until the basil just begins to wilt. Serve immediately, with a side of rice.

Substitutions

If you can’t find Japanese or Chinese eggplant, you can substitute most other varieties. Larger eggplants should be cut into pieces no more than 1 inch thick. To make this dish fully vegetarian, replace the fish sauce with an additional teaspoon of soy sauce and ½ teaspoon additional sugar. Most fresh chilies can work if you can’t find Thai bird’s eye chilies.

[1] Unlike most European eggplant varieties, the long and narrow East Asian eggplants are not salted before cooking, as they contain a far lower concentration of bitter compounds. Actually, most modern Western eggplant varieties no longer need this step either—like brussels sprouts, recent advances have led to the bitterness being bred out of most eggplants.

Recipe

Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 8 min Total Time: 12 min

Difficulty: 1/5

Heat Sources: 1 burner

Equipment: pan

Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 Japanese eggplants
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bird’s eye chilies, chopped
1 cup Thai basil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
Vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Quarter the eggplant, and chop into 2 inch pieces.

2. Heat about 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a pan over high heat. When the oil is hot, add the minced garlic and chilies to the pan and fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the eggplant to the pan and fry for 2 minutes per side, until the pieces brown and soften.

4. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar to the pan, and toss together with the eggplant, cooking for about a minute or until the sauce has thickened.

5. Add the Thai basil leaves to the pan and stir until they have wilted, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.