Dry Fried Eggplant

This is my signature dish lately - easy and delicious!

I first had them at Gu’s Bistro on Buford Highway in Chamblee (outside the Atlanta perimeter.) Gu’s moved Intown (Krog Market) and the eggplant is is still great but the menu and restaurant ambience up in Chamblee was by far much better than the food court setting. The prices went way up as well.

It’s such a simple dish, and fucking delicious. I’m curious how it’s not a mainstay on every menu. 
I did use a WaPo recipe that mentioned Peter Chang when I first started making these in about 2017 but I think the one linked to at WaPo now is a little different. I don’t recall being directed to wet the eggplant before cornstarching it. Also, paprika? No. And there’s no mention of salt in this WaPo recipe. They need salt. 

INGREDIENTS

Eggplants. I use whatever eggplant I can get my hands on. 

• oil for frying. Use an oil that has a high smoke point
• Korean chili powder (dried and coarsely ground) the chili powder used for  kimchi)
  
  
  Chili Arbol
• cornstarch
• cilantro
  
  
  Chopped roasted peanuts 

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DIRECTIONS

Peel the eggplant and cut it into fries. Maybe 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch thick Do your best to make them uniform and as long as possible. I make them the full length of the eggplant.

Put them in a big bowl and dump cornstarch on them. Toss them around in the bowl to coat. Shake off the extra using a wire rack or your spider. 

Heat about 1-2 inches of grapeseed or peanut oil in a wok to 350/375F and add the eggplant. And don’t crowd the wok. Keep them spaced apart or they will stick together as they fry. I line them all up nice and neat and fry on one side for about 2 minutes and then turn them (with tongs) and fry on the other side for another two minutes. Get them nicely browned. Watch that your oil temp doesn’t drop. Hot tip: use an infrared thermometer. Totally changes frying. 

Remove them to a paper towel and salt them while they are still wet with the hot oil. Use a flakey kosher salt. Don’t use fine salt. 

Dust them with a combo of ground chili arbol (deseed/toast/grind the arbol) and the Korean chili powder that you make your kimchee with. Lean more into the arbol if you want them spicy. 

Then serve right away with crushed peanuts (in the mortar/pestle) and chopped cilantro. 

They’re super crisp on the outside and that yummy eggplant custard on the inside. 

They’re also great with a kimchee mayo or cilantro oil or roasted chili oil. (We make them a lot so we change up the way they get served.)

And check out Calvin Trillin in The New Yorker about Peter Chang

Where’s Chang?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/01/wheres-chang