Steamed Eggplant with Fish Sauce - 10 min recipe!

This recipe is a saviour for the time you have an eggplant in your fridge and don't know what to do with it!
Also it is so simple and easy to prepare, you only need 10 minutes and you will have an extra dish to serve.
Only 6 ingredients and 10 minutes and you get a very tasty addition to your meal. It's worth a try, you have nothing to lose!

Because this is such a simple dish, it is important to use good ingredients as it will make a big difference with the final product.

Fish Sauce have many types out there but this Red Boat Fish Sauce has only 2 ingredients. Anchovies and Salt. That's it! 
In this recipe, we used Red Boat 50°N Hardwood Smoked Fish Sauce that has a pleasant smoky flavor. "50N" is the highest grade fish sauce in Read Boat's lineup. If you were wondering what the "N" is, degrees N is an industry standard used to measure the amount of nitrogen, a significant factor in determining the quality of fish sauce. A higher “degrees N” indicates a higher level of protein; more protein means more umami flavor. Red Boat Fish Sauce has double to triple the amount of protein compared to its competitors.

 They also have 40N Fish Sauce, which is also very good and will not cost you an arm and a leg. Both 40N and 50N have no MSG, no preservatives and needless to say, no additives. Just fish and salt!

We have also added soy sauce to this recipe. This helps boost the umami with 2 types of different amino acids. Once from the fish sauce (protein from the fish) and the other form the soy (plant-based amino acids). Mixing the amino acids help build more umami.


The last ingredient for the sauce is the toasted sesame sauce. Make sure you used the "toasted" sesame oil. Just the sesame oil will not create the same flavors!

Enjoy this super easy and yummy dish!


Steamed Eggplant with Fish Sauce
(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients
1 Large Eggplant
A few stems of Coriander
1 1/2 Tbsp., Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp., Fish Sauce
1/2 Tbsp., Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp., White Sesame



Instructions

1. Heat up the steamer and boil the water. While waiting for the water to boil, cut the eggplant into 4 pieces. Steam the cut eggplant in the steamer for 5 minutes. 
   
   
2. While waiting for the eggplant to steam, prepare the dressing and the toppings. For the coriander, remove the stems and chop finely, set aside. 
   
   
3. Mix the fish sauce, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil in the serving bowl. 
   
   
4. After 5 minutes of steaming the eggplants, the eggplants should be softer but firm enough so that it can be torn in to strips. Remove the eggplants form the steamer and place it in a large mixing bowl.
   
   
5. Using a knife, make a small cut in the eggplants and tear it into strips using your hands.
   
   
6. Once all the eggplants are made into strips pour the sauce over the eggplants and mix well. 
   
   
7. Place the eggplants in the serving bowl and top it with the coriander. Sprinkle the sesame over it.
   
8. You can serve this hot or cold. Enjoy!