Korean eggplant: recipes and cooking tips

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In this article, let's talk about exotic cuisine, which has firmly settled in our culinary tradition. Many do not even suspect that some dishes came to us from Asian countries.

In this article, let's talk about how to cook Korean-style eggplant - a spicy dish that excites the taste sensations of those who are not afraid to discover new tastes and savory recipes from oriental countries.

A little about Asian cooking

The fact is that Korean and Chinese cuisine are closely intertwined. Most Asian dishes contain dressings prepared in unique ways. An interesting fact is that when preparing them, it takes quite a lot of time to process the ingredients, but the process itself is much faster.

Every dish in Korea, like Korean eggplant, is served in a separate bowl.

The main ones are considered in soups, kimchi (spicy pickled radishor cabbage), marinated raw fish (hwee), noodles with pepper, sesame oil and soy (kuksa). No less popular here are instant Korean eggplant salads, red hot peppers, carrots and other vegetables, fruits or mushrooms.

By the way, you can cook them from pickled, boiled, pickled or raw vegetables. Usually these ingredients are mixed with meat, soy sauce dressing, vegetable oil and various spices.

The secrets of the most delicious Korean eggplant recipes

Traditionally, Asian cooks prefer to cut the ingredients as thin as possible. It makes the food tastier, they say. A good example of such a rule is Korean eggplant salad.

The secret to delicious spicy dishes lies in roasting ground, hot and red peppers, which slightly lose their pungency during cooking. According to the recipe, the spicy seasoning gives Korean-style eggplant the most “delicious” aroma that forever settles somewhere inside you and warms you with memories of unforgettable sensations.

Traditional spices used in eggplant dishes are pepper, coriander, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic.

Salad in the best Korean tradition

To prepare the dish you will need the following components:

• two young large eggplants;
• three tablespoons of soy sauce;
• four garlic cloves;
• a bunch of green onions;
• half a lemon;
• hot pepper taste;
• 30g granulated sugar;
• a small handful of friedsesame seeds.

Cooking salad

Vegetables thoroughly washed, cut in half, baked in the oven until tender. The result should be soft and elastic eggplant, which must be cut into medium bars with a sharp knife. Pour chopped vegetables into a salad bowl.

Finely chop the onion and garlic, send it there. Top everything with lemon juice, soy sauce, pepper, seeds and sugar. We mix everything well. We serve a ready-made Korean-style eggplant salad to the table.

Bon appetit!

Seasonal eggplant salad

This recipe is perfect for any event in summer or autumn, when you can easily afford the purchase of "blue tomatoes". It is recommended to cook such a dish for several hours, as a good soaking of eggplant allows you to get the most pronounced taste of vegetables.

For cooking you will need:

• 3 large eggplants;
• 3 small onions;
• 3 carrots;
• 3 sweet peppers;
• 6 spoons of sunflower (olive) oil;
• 2 spoons of apple cider vinegar;
• 2 spoons of soy sauce,
• s alt, ground pepper - optional.

Cooking process

Turn eggplants into thin strips with a knife, leave for an hour under a powder of s alt - this will get rid of excess bitterness. Next, fry the vegetables until a golden hue appears.

Peel the carrots, cut into pieces (you canuse a grater). We cut the onion in half rings, send to the carrots. Next, you need to remove the seeds from the pepper, also make small straws out of it.

For dressing you need to mix vinegar, oil, soy sauce. Mix all the ingredients, s alt, 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 soaking, eggplant salad becomes a wonderful option for a juicy dish or snack for any celebration.

Some Cooking Tricks

Eggplant is an oblong vegetable that can be golden white, milky white, dark purple or light purple depending on its maturity. Overripe takes on shades of gray-green or yellow-brown.

Useful secrets:

1. Fruit that has not reached an overripe state should be heavy (length 15 centimeters with a weight of half a kilogram).
2. The stalk of the vegetable should not be wrinkled and green.
3. The skin of a good fruit is spotless and smooth, should restore its shape when pressed. Slippery and soft, dry or wrinkled - in this case, it indicates that the vegetable has been lying for a long time, and you should not buy it.
4. To prepare a tasty and not bitter salad, you need to opt for young fruits. Since they contain less solanine (a substance that gives a noticeable bitterness to the vegetable), the salad can turn out to be really tasty and he althy.
5. If the eggplant is “not the first freshness”, the vegetable needs to be peeled, covered with s alt and left for a while. After about half an hour, he secretes a bitter juice. After that, eggplants should be washed under running water, soaked and squeezed to get rid of excess liquid and s alt. These manipulations allow us to get a usable vegetable.
6. Using a s alt press or pre-boiling eggplant fruit avoids excessive oil absorption during frying.
7. Raw vegetable is dangerous to human life. Only the fruit that has undergone heat treatment is suitable for consumption.

Another great recipe

Korean-style marinated 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;
• celery sprigs;
• parsley sprigs;
• 3 bulbs;
• garlic to taste;
• chili pepper optional.

For the marinade you will need:

• 150 ml vegetable oil;
• 75ml vinegar;
• 3 spoons of sugar;
• one and a half teaspoons of coriander;
• as many mustard seeds;
• 2/3 teaspoon ground chili pepper;
• s alt to taste;
• a few peas of allspice and black pepper.

Start cooking pickled eggplant

Chop our main ingredient and be sure to s alt.

After 20 minutes, blanch the eggplant in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain the liquid. At the end, we complete the processing of vegetables by washing under running water.

Next, take the onion, cut into rings, garlic into plates, and chili into thin circles. Then we cut off the leaves of celery and parsley, rinse. Finely chop the carrots, you can chop it on a special grater.

Mix the prepared foods in a large bowl, pour the mixture over. After that, cover with a lid and marinate the Korean-style eggplant for a day. You will need to stir the mixture from time to time. These marinated eggplants will pleasantly surprise your loved ones!

If you wish, you can use this recipe for cooking Korean-style eggplant in pita rolls.

Stocking up for the winter

You can use this idea if you or your relatives are just crazy about spicy side dishes. A Korean-style eggplant recipe for the winter is a great option to treat yourself and loved ones to something spicy on New Year's holidays.

The recipe includes the following ingredients:

• 3 kilograms of fresh eggplant;
• 700 grams sweet pepper;
• 4 onion heads;
• 4 carrots;
• 2 garlic heads.

For 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 intofour parts. Pour 3 liters of water into the pan, pour s alt. As soon as the liquid boils, you need to lower the chopped vegetables into it and cook for about 5 minutes, then remove it. Cool the blanched fruits and cut.

Next, you need to chop the onions in half rings, peel the seeds from the peppers and cut them into strips, grate the carrots on a special grater and use a press to grind the peeled garlic.

Then you need to mix all the ingredients in a large saucepan.

After cooking from the above marinade components, fill our vegetables with it. Mix everything thoroughly, put a press on top and cover the vegetables with a lid. So they should stand for about a week in the refrigerator. After a long pickling, we send Korean-style eggplants to prepared jars for storage for the winter.

After laying, we sterilize everything again for 40 minutes, roll it up and cover with a blanket.

This recipe will allow you to diversify the winter menu with a special piquancy. They can be used as an appetizer or used for Korean Stuffed Eggplant recipe.

Don't be afraid to experiment! Bon appetit!