Chinese Stuffed Eggplant (釀茄子)

Stuffed eggplant is one of the Cantonese "Three Treasures," a trio of stuffed dishes that also includes stuffed peppers and stuffed tofu. Each uses the same shrimp-and-fish paste filling but pairs it with a different sauce: yuxiang (garlic-vinegar) for the eggplant, black bean for the peppers, and oyster-fish for the tofu. The combination appears at dim sum houses and Cantonese home tables alike.

The filling is a paste made by smashing fish and shrimp separately with the flat side of a cleaver, then combining them and working the mixture until it becomes sticky and cohesive. This old-school technique produces a filling with a bouncy, almost springy texture that a food processor cannot quite replicate, though a processor gets you close enough for home cooking.

The eggplant is cut in a specific way: angled slices with a hinge cut, where the first cut goes three-quarters of the way through and the second cut separates the slice, creating connected pairs that open like a book. The filling goes into the slit, the eggplant gets pan-fried until golden, then steamed briefly with a splash of water to cook through. The yuxiang sauce, sweet, sour, and garlicky, goes over the top. Use Chinese or Japanese long eggplant. American globe eggplant is too thick and dense for this preparation.