Fish-Fragrant Eggplant: The Definitive Version

Key Principles

- **Eggplant preparation:** Long purple Chinese eggplant (thinner skin, less bitter, more tender than globe eggplant) cut into batons and deep-fried at 180°C until golden and tender. The oil-frying produces the specific silky, yielding texture of restaurant-quality yu xiang eggplant — pan-frying or steaming produces different results. [VERIFY] Dunlop's eggplant technique.

- **Oil quantity:** Significantly more oil than a standard stir-fry — essentially a shallow fry for the eggplant stage.

- **After draining:** The fried eggplant is immediately tossed in the yu xiang sauce (FD-92) in a hot wok — the sauce should coat and absorb into the eggplant rather than pooling around it.

Source

Dunlop