FRIED BRINJALS WITH PEANUTS

There seems to be lots of unending meat dishes served during the Chinese New Year and till now.  Rather tired of preparing meat and seafood dishes which I wasn't too keen to indulge.

This is a colourful, light, tasty and easy vegetable dish that tastes awesome came to my rescue. Given a choice, I would choose this instead of chicken, pork or prawns. It's suitable for the old and young,  good to serve this with rice or porridge.

The brinjals and tomatoes are soft, sweet and sourish.  The braised peanuts are tender and tasty.  If you like the peanuts to be crunchy, just replace the canned braised peanuts to crispy peanuts which is to be added just before dishing up.

The first time, I prepared this dish, I had no intention to post the recipe here as I thought it is nothing special.  But after tasting it, I changed my mind which prompted me to cook this again and here is the recipe.

Ingredients

300 gm brinjal – cut lengthwise and halved

1 tomato – cut wedges

1 stalk spring onions – cut into sections

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 small can braised peanuts – drained off the liquid

Seasoning

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking wine

½ tsp sugar

Salt to taste

1. Deep fry brinjals in hot oil over high heat in a small saucepan until bright purple colour.  Drained and set aside.
2. Using another wok, add ½ tbsp oil, sauté chopped garlic until aromatic, then add in tomatoes and seasoning.  Return the fried brinjals to the wok, toss well, add a little water and braised peanuts.
3. Stir to mix well and bring the sauce to boil until thick.  Add in the spring onion.  Mix well, dish up to serve.