Eggplant “Ginger Beef “

This dish will totally blow you away.  It's delicious and totally vegetarian option for the ginger beef.  In fact, once you make this eggplant dish, you might not even crave the ginger beef anymore. You have to make it to believe it. 

      

I used to love going out for ginger beef but lately, we've been eating less meat and more vegetarian  so when it happened that I tasted this  (something similar made by one of the local vegetarian restaurants), I was really impressed. Not only was this a meatless dish that looked like meat, but the most important thing, it tasted great!! I was hooked and I decided I needed to know how to make this...

Those who know me well, know that I love to cook and try new things so I decided to give this delicious dish a go... I'm always excited to make my own recipes and this was no exception. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the end results. It turned out just the way I thought it would, and once my husband got to taste it, he couldn't stop eating it...:-)

 A great dish deserves to be shared, so here it is. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as we did. 

There are a few steps that you should follow for the best outcome of this dish.

First, cut the eggplant in finger long strips, sprinkle with salt and then place them in a bowl and set it aside for 3o minutes or longer so to let the salt drain out the moisture before proceeding with the frying. Don't skip this part.

Then, roll them into the flour mix, dip them each into the egg wash then roll them into the bread crumbs. Place them on a cutting board until you done them all.

Place oil into a frying pan, about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch deep. Once oil is hot, fry the strips until lightly brown, turning them over once. Do not overcrowd the pan.

Remove to a paper towel covered plate. Proceed with the rest of the eggplant strips until all done. Set aside.

Place eggplant strips into a serving dish and pour the hot sauce over the strips tossing them lightly to distribute sauce evenly.

        Serve Eggplant "Ginger Beef" on rice. Recipe for Vegetable Fried Rice

Eggplant "Ginger Beef"' Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 smaller/medium eggplants

1/2  tsp salt

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

Oil for frying

Sauce:

1/2 cup VH Pineapple sauce

1/2 cup VH Honey Garlic sauce

1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce

1/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Peel eggplant and cut lengthwise into 1/2  inch thick slices, then cut each slice across into 1/2 inch strips.

Place all the pieces into a bowl,  sprinkle with salt and set aside for 30 minutes.

Set up 3 bowls; Place the flour into the first one; add the black pepper and stir to mix.

Beat the eggs lightly with a fork into the second bowl.

Place the bread crumbs into the third bowl.

Drain eggplant strips and first roll them into the flour mix, dip them each into the egg wash then roll them into the bread crumbs. Place them on a cutting board until you done them all.

Place oil into a frying pan, about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch deep. Once oil is hot, fry the strips until lightly brown, turning them over once. Do not overcrowd the pan. Remove to a paper towel covered plate. Proceed with the rest of the eggplant strips. Set aside.

To make the sauce combine all three sauces into a saucepan; add the water and bring sauce to a boil.

Place eggplant strips into a serving dish and pour the hot sauce over the strips tossing them lightly to distribute sauce evenly.

Serve over steamed or fried rice or  Vegetable Fried Rice

 Enjoy!