In this article we will talk about exotic cuisine, which is densely settled in our culinary tradition. Many do not even suspect that some dishes came to us from Asian countries.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to cook eggplant in Korean - a spicy dish that excites the taste of those who are not afraid to discover new tastes and spicy recipes of eastern countries.
A bit about Asian cooking
The fact is that Korean and Chinese cuisine are closely intertwined. Most Asian dishes contain dressings made in unique ways. An interesting fact is that when they are prepared, it takes quite a lot of time to process the ingredients, but the process itself is much faster.
Any dish in Korea, for example, Korean-style eggplant, is served in a separate bowl.
The main ones are soups, kimchi (spicy pickled radish or cabbage), pickled raw fish (hwe), noodles with pepper, sesame oil and soybean (kuksa). Equally popular here are instant salads from Korean eggplant, red hot peppers, carrots and other vegetables, fruits or mushrooms.
By the way, you can cook them from pickled, boiled, pickled or raw vegetables. Typically, these components are mixed with meat, with dressing from soy sauce, with vegetable oil and various spices.
The secrets of the most delicious eggplant recipes in Korean
By tradition, Asian cooks prefer to cut the ingredients as thin as possible. This makes the food tastier, they say. A good example of this rule is Korean-style eggplant salad.
The secret to delicious spicy dishes is to fry ground, hot and red peppers, which slightly lose their sharpness during cooking. Piquant seasoning gives, according to the recipe, Korean style eggplant with the most “delicious” aroma that settles forever somewhere inside you and warms with memories of unforgettable sensations.
The traditional spices used in eggplant dishes are peppers, coriander, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic.
Salad in the best Korean traditions
To prepare the dish, the following components will be required:
- two young large eggplant;
- three tablespoons of soy sauce;
- four garlic cloves;
- a bunch of green onions;
- half a lemon;
- hot pepper to taste;
- 30 g granulated sugar;
- a small handful of fried sesame seeds.
Cooking salad
We thoroughly wash the vegetables, cut in half, bake in the oven until cooked. The result should be soft and resilient eggplant, which must be cut into medium slices with a sharp knife. Pour chopped vegetables into a salad bowl.
Chop finely the onion and garlic, and send it there. Sprinkle all over with lemon juice, soy sauce, sprinkle with pepper, seeds and sugar. All mix well. Serve a ready-made Korean-style eggplant salad to the table.
Enjoy your meal!
Eggplant Seasonal Salad
This recipe is perfect for any event in both summer and autumn, when you can easily afford to buy “blue tomatoes”. It is recommended to cook such a dish for several hours, as a good impregnation of eggplant allows you to get the most pronounced taste of vegetables.
For cooking you will need:
- 3 large eggplant;
- 3 small onion heads;
- 3 carrots;
- 3 sweet peppers;
- 6 tablespoons of sunflower (olive) oil;
- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar;
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- salt, ground pepper - optional.
Cooking process
We turn eggplant into a thin straw with a knife, leave for an hour under the sprinkle of salt - this will get rid of excessive bitterness. Next, fry the vegetables until a golden hue appears.
Peel the carrots, cut into pieces (you can use a grater). Cut the onion into rings, send to the carrots. Next, you need to remove the seeds from the pepper, also make small straws from it.
For dressing you need to mix vinegar, oil, soy sauce. We mix all the ingredients, salt, pepper and season. We put the salad bowl in the refrigerator, periodically you need to look into the container and mix the mixture. Due to the long impregnation, the eggplant salad becomes a wonderful option for a juicy dish or snack for any celebration.
Some cooking tricks
Eggplant is an elongated vegetable, which, depending on maturity, can be golden white, milky white, dark purple or light purple. Overripe acquires shades of gray-green or yellow-brown.
Useful secrets:
- A fetus that has not reached an overripe state should be heavy (15 centimeters long with a half kilogram weight).
- The stem of the vegetable should not be wrinkled and green.
- The skin of a good fruit without spots and smooth, when pressed should restore shape. Slippery and soft, dry or shriveled - in this case, it indicates that the vegetable has been lying for a long time, and you should not buy it.
- To prepare a tasty and not bitter salad, you need to choose young fruits. Since they contain less solanine (a substance that gives tangible bitterness to vegetables), the salad can turn out to be really tasty and healthy.
- If the eggplant is not of the first freshness, the vegetable should be peeled, sprinkled with salt and left for a while. After about half an hour, he gives off bitter juice. After that, the eggplants should be washed under running water, soaked and squeezed to get rid of excess fluid and salt. These manipulations allow us to obtain a suitable vegetable.
- Using a salt press or pre-boiling eggplant fruits helps to avoid excessive absorption of oil during frying.
- Raw vegetable is life threatening. Only a fruit that has undergone heat treatment is suitable for consumption.
Another great recipe
Korean-style pickled eggplant can be a good snack or addition to potatoes, pasta and all kinds of cereals.
You will need the following list of products:
- 3 preferably young eggplant;
- 2 carrots;
- sprigs of celery;
- sprigs of parsley;
- 3 onions;
- garlic to taste;
- chilli optional.
For the marinade you will need:
- 150 ml of vegetable oil;
- 75 ml of vinegar;
- 3 tablespoons of sugar;
- one and a half teaspoons of coriander;
- as many mustard seeds;
- 2/3 teaspoon ground chili;
- salt to taste;
- a few peas of allspice and black pepper.
Getting Started with Pickled Eggplant
Cut our main ingredient and be sure to salt.
After 20 minutes, blanch the eggplant in boiling water for about 2 minutes. We drain the liquid. At the end, the processing of vegetables is completed by washing under running water.
Next, take onions, cut into rings, garlic into plates, and chili into thin slices. Then we chop off celery leaves and parsley, rinse. Finely chop the carrots, you can chop it on a special grater.
Stir the cooked foods in a large bowl, fill with the cooked mixture. After we cover and pickle the eggplant in Korean for a day. From time to time it will be necessary to stir the mixture. Such pickled eggplant will pleasantly surprise your loved ones!
If desired, you can use this recipe for cooking Korean eggplant in pita rolls.
We stock up for the winter!
You can use this idea if you or your relatives are just crazy about sharp side dishes. Korean-style eggplant recipe for the winter is a great option to treat yourself and your loved ones with something spicy on New Year's holidays.
The recipe includes the following components:
- 3 kilograms of fresh eggplant;
- 700 grams of sweet pepper;
- 4 onion heads;
- 4 pieces of carrots;
- 2 garlic heads.
For an eggplant marinade: 175 grams of vegetable oil, 200 ml of vinegar, a spoonful of red and black ground peppers, 5 tablespoons of sugar, a spoonful of coriander, one and a half tablespoons of water.
Cut the eggplant into four parts. Pour 3 liters of water into the pan, pour salt. As soon as the liquid boils, you need to lower the chopped vegetables into it and cook for about 5 minutes, then take it out. Cool the blanched fruits and chop.
Next, chop the onions in half rings, peel the seeds from the seeds and cut them into strips, grate the carrots on a special grater and use a press to chop the peeled garlic.
Then you need to mix all the ingredients in a large saucepan.
After preparing the marinade from the above components, pour them our vegetables. All must be thoroughly mixed, put on top of the press and cover the vegetables with a lid. So they should stand for about a week in the refrigerator. After a long pickling, we send the eggplants in Korean to prepared jars for storage for the winter.
After laying again we sterilize everything for 40 minutes, roll up and cover with a blanket.
Such a recipe will allow you to diversify the winter menu with a special piquancy. They can be either an appetizer or used for Korean stuffed eggplant recipe.
Do not be afraid to experiment! Enjoy your meal!