Recipe
Aubergine Salad
I love aubergine or eggplant. Love, love, love it. I supposed I love it because it reminds me so much of my childhood. We happily ate lots of eggplants cooked in many different ways! It is pure nostalgia.
It is so easy to cook these plump purple bullets and yet so tasty to go as a side salad even to egg and chips or egg and bacon.
What I did was fry the aubergines with the bacon and came out lovely and gorgeous.
Aubergine Salad with the secret ingredient: Patis., Photo by JMorotn
I don’t know how easy it is to grow aubergine here in the UK. The few times I tried, the plant did not fruit at all and if it had fruited, it did not mature. Probably it needed a full glaring sun like in the East. I am just grateful that eggplants or aubergines can now be bought cheaply in most supermarkets and even corner shops.
Ingredients:
- 2 medium size aubergine, cut in half (crosswise) and then cut the halves further in 3 pieces
- 3 stalks spring onions, chopped
- 19 (from the photo) or more cherry tomatoes or 2 large ones, chopped
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Patis (Fish Sauce)
Preparation:
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the aubergine. Ensure to cook all sides. It is cooked when it is soft.
In a serving dish, put the spring onions and tomatoes together and add a dash of patis. Patis is a Filipino fish sauce. Unfortunately, I can’t find any oriental supermarket where I live that sells Filipino patis. (Hey Philippines, where are the patis? Why are you not exporting more patis in the UK?) Fortunately Thai fish sauce is pretty similar to Pilipino patis.
You have two options with the aubergine, you can scoop out the flesh off the skin using a spoon or serve the whole thing; I actually prefer the whole thing. It taste nice as it is. Add to the spring onions and tomatoes and check that enough patis have been added.
Ideal with fried fish or meat dishes.