Korean-style salad with eggplants
Korean-style salad with eggplants is a good choice to make your everyday menu more diverse. My version of recipe is not spicy (well, it’s definitely up to you) and has salty-pickled flavor. Due to use of salt, sugar and vinegar eggplant salad can be stored up to 3-4 days in a fridge.
Ingredients:
- 1,6 kg of eggplants (I’ve got used to dark purple variety)
- 250 g of bell peppers (any kind will do)
- 250 g of carrots
- 200 g of onions
- 20 g of garlic (~4-6 cloves)
- 1,5 tbsp of sugar
- 5 tbsp of soy sauce
- 4 tbsp of vinegar, 9%
- 3 tbsp of fried sesame seeds
- Frying oil
- 7 tsp of salt
In total you will produce 2 liters of eggplant salad. While for mixing vegetables you’d rather use a 5-liter bowl.
Instructions
1. Cut eggplants in pieces, kind of 1x1x5 cm. Stir them with salt and leave them for 20-30 min. (we do it to reduce eggplant’s bitterness).
2. Squeeze eggplants to get rid of their juice. Wash them and squeeze one more time – repeat it twice.
3. Add some frying oil to a pan. Put eggplants there and stir them in order to cover with oil. Turn the heat on, medium-high or high level. Fry eggplants, occasionally stirring in order to make some sides golden-brown.
If eggplants don’t fit in your pan, divide them in 2-3 portions and cook 1 portion after another.
4. Now cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low and fry eggplants covered until they are cooked through. It will take ~15 min. Remember to stir eggplants every 5 min.
5. Turn off the stove and uncover the pan – let eggplants cool down.
6. Cut fresh vegetables in stripes: onion bulbs and bell peppers cut in quarters and slice, use Korean grater for carrots (or imitate it with the use of knife). And use press for garlic.
7. Put all vegetables in a big bowl that you will use for combining everything. Add sugar, sesame, soy sauce and vinegar. Mix everything well.
8. Tramp the salad down, cover and put it in a fridge at least for 2 hours.
