Hello!

It’s been a minute. Oops. Life has been lifeing, and before you know it, there’s only 6 weeks to the end of the year. Mum and I have been doing well, and dreaming up of new ways to make this space more exciting.

I know everyone’s getting into holiday recipes now, but before we bring on the butter, here’s a quick weekday meal that Sajjad makes for us. It’s a riff on a dish we ate in Vietnam earlier this year, and it is as easy to make as it is delicious. It is, without a doubt, one of eggplant’s finest moments (the other being fried and topped on yogurt — a Turkish situation that I’ve been meaning to try).

Meanwhile, give this a go — you won’t be sorry. If you’d like to make this vegetarian, you could replace the fish sauce with a little extra soy sauce.

Shameless plug: I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter over on substack, follow if you’d like: The Tea.

Vietnamese-ish Eggplant

Ingredients
500 g eggplant (slit in half) (we like the long one, use whatever you have)
6-8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4-6 Thai red chilli
3 spring onion (chop the white part, and cut the green into longer pieces)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil

Method

Shallow fry egg plant in batches, cut side down, until they brown a little.
Set aside to drain on a paper towel.
Make the sauce by mixing together the sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce.
Sauté the chopped white part of the spring onion in a little oil.
Pour in the sauce mix into this, and allow it to bubble for a minute or two.
Place the eggplant in the sauce, skin-side down. Add the garlic, chilli and green part of the spring onion on top.
Cover and cook for 3-4 mins.
Spoon the sauce over the eggplant and serve hot with steamed rice.