Hot Umami Eggplant

I'm always on the lookout for new eggplant recipes. It's such a great base for a variety of flavors, way beyond the oil soaked fried variety, though that certainly has it's place in my life. This particular creation is great served with some brown basmati rice and a spinach salad with citrus dressing or oranges tossed in it. 

I know the ingredients list looks long, but it's worth it, and most of the prep work can be done as you go if you play your timing right.

My eggplant came from haymarket, so it definitely needed to be salted, even if your eggplant is really fresh, salting or at least squeezing a bit of liquid out of the eggplant will help it absorb more of the flavor of the sauce.
 

Hot Umami Eggplant

Ingredients:

     1 eggplant, cubed

     1/4 cup water

     1/8 cup white vinegar

     1/8 cup rice vinegar (sub white vinegar if you don't have any, or water if you don't want it to be quite as tangy

     3 tbs sugar or equivalent of sweetener of choice

     1 tsp salt

     3/4 cup red wine (separated into fourths, roughly 3 tbs each, or you can just eye it as you go, and no need to worry about quality here, I've used box wine (we're obviously overflowing with class) and it still turns out well)

     1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes

     6 green onions (scallions, spring onions, same deal)

     1/2 tbs crushed or pureed ginger

     2 cloves crushed garlic (minced works too)

     1/8 cup vegetable broth

     1 tbs cornstarch

Directions:

1. If the eggplant isn't the youngest finest thing, salt the cubes and let them drain in a colander for half an hour, rinse off the salt, and squeeze the excess water out of them.
2. In a small bowl wisk together the water,  1/4 of the red wine (about 3 tbs,) the vinegars, sugar and salt. Set the mixture aside.
3. Thinly slice the green onion, and separate the white and green portions.
4. Heat 1/4 of the red wine and the red pepper flakes in a large skillet or sauce pan over medium heat for a minute or so, stirring as needed.
5. Add the white part of the green onions, ginger, and garlic, cook until fragrant
6. Add the eggplant, 1/4 of the red wine, and vegetable broth, cover and cook 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is done. It will be slightly browned and soft.
7. Add the vinegar mixture, and cook and additional 2-3 minutes
8. Whisk together the cornstarch and remaining red wine.
9. Add the cornstarch mixture and green portion of the onions, stir frequently and cook until sauce has thickened, probably less than a minute.

Aren't these pretty? They're so curvy and... green. If your green onions have been living in your crisper drawer for longer then they probably should have been, remove the outer leaf and trim off the ends as far in as you need to so only firm parts are left. If you don't have green onions, you could substitute regular onion, just saute them first, but the taste will be very different.