Easy Eggplant Recipe

FS is all about easy, cheap comforts when it comes to food. Case in point: trung kho, which got even easier since the last time FS posted about it. Today, FS devotes a post to eggplant.

FS loves eggplant. FS has not met anyone else who loves eggplant as FS does. FS's mother developed this recipe with FS in mind just as FS developed the rum and raisin ice cream with FS's mother in mind. Such is the love between FS and her mother!

This is a supremely easy recipe requiring only a few ingredients and only a few steps.

Steamed and Broiled Egplant with Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil
3 eggplants
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp pepper (optional, perhaps only a dash for your taste, but FS likes this dish spicy)
1/2 to 1 tsp sugar (depends on flavor presence)

Eighth or sixteenth the eggplants into short strips.

From the back to front: two fourths, two eights, four sixteenths.

Place in steamer container.

Place in a plastic or glass covered container to steam. Microwave it. For FS, FS steamed each eggplant for 3 minutes since FS's container is small. 

A leftover plastic container from to-go order from the Chinese restaurant across the street = perfect steamer.

3 minutes per eggplant.

Meanwhile, mix the soy sauce and sesame oil and sugar in a medium-size bowl.

Take out steamed eggplant and drench and roll strip by strip in the mixture above to coat and then lay across aluminum foil.

All of the sliced eggplant: two different sizes for eating variation (maybe with rice or maybe with toast).

Close up of eggplant now covered in sauce.

Do this to all the eggplant strips. Place eggplant onto the top rack of the oven.

Then broil for 10-20 minutes depending on how crisp and well caramelized you want the strips to be. FS broiled hers for 18 minutes.

Serve with rice or on toast.

In reality, this could be flavored however you like. Sometimes FS and her family will do olive oil and salt and pepper.

And, of course, store in your rescued plastic:

Ca Kho Recipe

"I'm going to make Ca Kho today."

"But it's so salty." And sweet, the Food Scavenger thought, but she didn't say it aloud. "You usually don't like such salty things."

"I don't. That's why I'm going to make it myself."

It took the Food Scavenger three times to arrive at a recipe that was just right. And how right it was. The pot began to smoke a little, the Food Scavenger scurried forth and flipped the fish, whooping over the caramellization, and added a little water to aid in caramellizing the other side of the fish.

The next day (the Food Scavenger was patient, allowing the fish maximum rest and soaking in caramellized sweet and salty juices), the Food Scavenger dug into a bowl of rice with the most amazing, well-balanced of sweet and salt ca kho ever. But of course her love was short-lived, the recipe set to the side to be immortalized till the next time it was needed (the next week and the next and the next for the Food Scavenger's mood held a deep, abiding love for ca kho - ca kho today, ca kho tomorrow, ca kho every day).

The Food Scavenger being a rather a big-mouthed person picked up the phone and proclaimed to any who picked up her triumph. Her phone was not amused.

"But what is ca kho?" The phone would say (or rather, the person on the other end of the phone line).

Words failed the Food Scavenger. How to explain a staple of Vietnamese food? Were there any equivalents in English? Lamely, the Food Scavenger threw words such as "caramellization" and "fish sauce" and "soy sauce" and "marinade" (not even knowing if she was using this word right).

Suffice to say, both the phone and the Food Scavenger were perplexed.

"And this is supposed to be good?" The phone would finally say.

And the Food Scavenger, heart in mouth, stomach flopping at her feet, would say, "Yes." Yesyesyesyesyes!

Ca Kho
1 salmon, cut longitudinally into two inch thick pieces
2 to 3 tablespoon brown sugar (can be increased to a 1/4 cup depending on taste preferences, Food Scavenger prefers ca kho more salty than sweet, hence only a few tablespoons of sugar)
1/4 c. sesame oil (Lian How Brand Jasun Style Sesame Oil)
3 tbsp diced garlic (Jarred SpiceWorld garlic preserved in water and citric acid where 1/2 tsp = 1 clove, since 1 tbsp = 3 tsp = 6 cloves, the equivalent would be 18 cloves. But Food Scavenger loves garlic.)
1/4 c. fish sauce (i.e. nuoc mam, Food Scavenger used Tiparos Fish Sauce)
1/4 c. soy sauce (Mekong Seasoning Sauce, Soya flavor)
Pepper (lots for Food Scavenger who sneezed many times, but felt cheered by the sight of her ca kho dusted with the black and white shimmer of pepper)
5 jalapenos (sliced and laid onto the fish)
Water

Add sugar and dashes of water to pot (Food Scavenger has heavy pot passed on from grandmother, who'd also made ca kho in it - pot is heavy, scratched up, and able to be a weapon at any time). Heat on low, using a silicone spatula (Food Scavenger loves silicone. Silicone is her baking and cooking friend. Life is easier, because of silicone) or any other spatula or spoon on hand to mix sugar and water. Caramellization will begin: the beginning of an amber syrup will form, then bubble.

Add oil. Stir to incorporate caramellized sugar more evenly in oil. Then, add garlic. Stir until garlic browns. Then add fish sauce and soy sauce. Stir all until evenly incorporated and slighly thickened.

Add fish. Liberally pour pepper onto fish. Place slices of jalapeno onto fish, between spaces of fish. Cover and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until smoky smell wafts through kitchen and sets off fire alarm. Occasionally (every 15 minutes) during this 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncover and spoon sauces onto fish side not submerged in sauce (this part is optional, but here for the antsy and paranoid cook, who needs something to do).

After 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncover and flip fish. Add water if sauce thickened and burning. Then, cover and simmer again until sauce beneath very thick.  

Ca Kho as can be seen above is rather forgiving. It involves much eye-balling and examination of one's preferences. So there you have it: Ca Kho.