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Meatless Monday: Steamed Eggplant and 12 Chinese Spices!

A few teams in our company are going COMPLETELY vegetarian (last we checked, there’s a $360 pot for the winner!). So in the spirit of these actions, we’re going to try and post a MEATLESS MONDAY recipe EVERY FRIDAY so you have time during the weekend to gather ingredients and maybe get inspired by your local Farmers’ Market or grocery store!

THERE ARE ONLY TWO (!!!) PEOPLE LEFT IN THE VEGETARIAN CHALLENGE! Congrats to catering cooks Daphnie and Corrie for making it happen!  This time around we use one of Tom’s favorite cooking techniques, steaming, with our Rub with Love Chinese 12 Spice!  We thought we’d go for a light cooking method for the week after the Superbowl with a intensely flavorful sauce of star anise, sumac and cardamom!

Left: Grab an eggplant!  We like Japanese eggplant for this because it’s thinner and cooks faster, but… Right: No worries if you get a fatter eggplant because we’re going to cut in half!
Left: Take one half of the eggplant and slice in half Right: Cut the eggplant in more wedges, but keep the top together for ease of movement.
Left: Steam your eggplant directly in a basket or in a bowl.   If you’re new to steaming, there’s a salmon steaming video of Tom on the Martha Stewart show!  Right: Mix together the following ingredients for the sauce:

2 tablespoons of Rub with Love Chinese 12 Spice
1.5 tablespoons chili oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine (or sherry vinegar)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 stalks of green onions, sliced

Left: Don’t forget the rub!  Right: You can add a handful of roasted peanuts for texture.
Left: Check the eggplant after 8 minutes and pull from the steamer when it skin has wrinkled and it is fork tender through out the “meat.” Right: Chop into 1″ chunks and toss with 1/2 of the prepared sauce.  Add more if you think it needs it (it makes for a killer chicken or pork marinade too!).
We spooned the tossed eggplant over fresh ramen noodles and topped it with mint for brightness.  It’s wonderful hot, but is great as a cold side dish!  Enjoy!
Is there a vegetable or one of our rubs that you’d like us to use?  Shoot us a comment below!

February 7th, 2013

3 Responses to “Meatless Monday: Steamed Eggplant and 12 Chinese Spices!”

  1. frank s Says:
    February 8th, 2013 at 9:11 am

    this looks great! So interesting that you steam the eggplant instead of grilling or baking. I’m going to try this!

  2. Sandy Gellatly Says:
    February 8th, 2013 at 11:41 am

    Looks great, but what do I do with the the other half of prepared sauce? Refrigerate it? Thank you for this recipe. I can be happy and adding pork will make my husband happy? You are a Treasure!

  3. ShelleyL Says:
    February 8th, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    yes, I think Herschell would agree with me that you should cover and refrigerate any sauce you don’t use on the eggplant. You can use it up on pork, chicken, or anything else that sounds good to you.

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