There is a reason why it took me over 3 years before an eggplant recipe appears on Rasa Malaysia. I am confused; first by its many names and secondly, by its different varieties, shapes, colors, and forms.
According to Wikipedia, eggplant is probably the most common name and it’s used in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. In British English, it’s called aubergine (heck, I don’t even know how to pronounce it!). In India and South Africa, it’s brinjal. (How can a plant so pretty with such intense purple color so confused with its name–or errr, its given names?) Now, let me confuse you even more–in Malay, it’s called terung.
There are different types of eggplant–Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, American, white eggplant, etc., and each variety is unique in its own sense. Regardless of its varieties and different names, eggplant is a superb ingredient that I have come to love a lot.
Anyway, I got these cute and adorable Indian eggplants–some as small as a grape–and stir-fried them with sambal, like I did with my sambal asparagus recipe. It’s one of the most common recipes for eggplant in Malaysia. You can also roast them in oven.
Below is my sambal eggplant recipe for your reference. You can use any eggplant/aubergine/brinjal available in your market, but ultimately, timing matters most. You want to achieve that perfect, moist, and tender texture.
(Click Page 2 for the Sambal Eggplant Recipe)