Eggplants in Sweet and Sour Sauce
A dear friend sent me almost 2 kilos of eggplants that she harvested in her kitchen garden. Made vankaya pachadi (chutney), gutti vankaya kura (stuffed brinjals) and vangi bhath (eggplant rice) last week and my family felt that I was going overboard with eggplant recipes. 
I still had a good amount of this purple beauty sitting in the refrigerator that I wanted to use as quickly as possible. Today, I made an Indo Chinese style eggplant dish from Nita Mehta’s book which I cooked for the first time. I tweaked it to suit my family’s palate and it turned out reasonably good when paired with a bowl of hot steamed rice.
You can substitute the eggplants to what you have one hand. Okra, potatoes, paneer or tofu make for good substitutes. The original recipe called for the use of the large purple eggplants that are used to prepare baingan bharta but I used the smaller purple variety.
Eggplants in Sweet and Sour Sauce – Indo Chinese Recipe
Ingredients
- Eggplant - 1, large purple variety (used to make baingan bharta)
- Onion - 2, medium, quartered
- Dry red chilies - 3, tear into bits
- Black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
- Tomato Ketchup - 2 tbsps
- White vinegar - 1 tsp
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Soy Sauce - 1/2 tsp
- Corn flour - 4 tbsps mixed in 1/4 cup water
- Spring onion greens for garnish
- Oil - 2 tbsps
- For Tomato Stock:
- Onions - 2, medium, quartered
- Tomatoes - 4, large, chopped
- Garlic flakes - 7, lightly crushed
- Ginger - 3/4". finely minced
Method
- Peel the eggplant and cut into 1/2" thick slices. Cut each slice into 3/5" broad fingers. Sprinkle a large pinch of salt on them and keep aside for 15-20 minutes.
- To prepare the stock, cut each onion into quarters. In a pressure cooker, place all the ingredients called for tomato stock and pressure cook upto 3 whistles. Turn off heat and allow the pressure to subside.
- Strain the contents that have been pressure cooked and keep the tomato stock aside.
- Heat oil in a pan, stir fry the onions till transparent. Add red chilies, pepper powder and salt. Add the tomato stock and bring to a boil. Reduce flame, add tomato ketchup, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 mts. Add the cornflour-water mixture slowly, stirring continuously. Simmer for 2 mts and the sauce will thicken. Turn off heat and keep aside.
- Heat oil for deep frying in a heavy bottomed vessel. Once hot, reduce flame to medium and deep fry the eggplant pieces till soft. Remove onto an absorbent paper.
- At the time of serving, add the fried eggplant pieces in the tomato sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and garnish with spring onion greens. Serve with noodles or steamed white rice.
Tips
- I added 1/4 tsp garam masala powder (not in the original recipe).
Eggplants in sweet and sour sauce is an Indo Chinese recipe served with steamed rice. A gem among Eggplant recipes that is vegan too.
