This deliciously rich eggplant dip recipe takes a classic Sichuan braised eggplant dish called fish-fragrant eggplant and transforms it into a deeply-flavoured spicy eggplant dip. Serve this spiced eggplant dish as a starter before settling down to a full Sichuan feast or snack on the eggplant with our spicy Sichuan flavoured sourdough crackers, which were literally made for this dish. If you’re a fan of China’s spiciest cuisine, Sichuan food, you’ll love this.
If you’re a lover of the spiciest Chinese cuisine that is Sichuanese cuisine, more commonly called Sichuan cuisine, you’ll adore my deliciously rich eggplant dip recipe for a variation of the classic Sichuan braised eggplant dish called fish-fragrant eggplant. My eggplant dip recipe calls for smaller pieces of eggplant that are further broken down in a mortar and pestle or food processor to create a more dip-like texture.
One of our best eggplant recipes, this eggplant dip is best scooped up with my Sichuan flavoured sourdough crackers. In fact, I came up with the Sichuan inspired crackers to compliment this dip. So you have the zing of Sichuan peppercorns and heat of Sichuan chillies synonymous with Sichuan food, or Sichuanese cuisine according to Chinese food expert, cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop, who studied at Sichuan University and learnt to cook at Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine.
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Eggplant Dip Recipe Inspired by Sichuan Braised Fish Fragrant Eggplant
The original Sichuan braised fish-fragrant eggplant dish that my deliciously rich and spicy eggplant dip recipe is based upon is a Sichuan cuisine classic. Fish-fragrant eggplant has long been a favourite, right up there with mapo tofu and dan dan noodles, and is a dish that Lara and I always order whenever we eat at a Sichuanese restaurant.
Essentially fish-fragrant eggplant is braised eggplant with garlic, ginger and chillies. There’s no fish paste involved. The style of this eggplant dish is called ‘fish-fragrant’ because the flavour profile is similar to what was traditionally used to season fish dishes – a mix of chilli bean paste, ginger, garlic, and spring onions, or scallions for our American readers.
Another clarification: while the dish is typically called braised eggplant, the initial step in the cooking process is deep-frying the eggplant rather than dry searing and braising. But the eggplant is finished off in a liquid (stock is best), although this is more to meld the amazing flavours together rather than cook the eggplant more.
Note that while our eggplant dip recipe makes a spicy dip it is not one of those painfully hot or numbing dishes with which Sichuanese cuisine has become synonymous, such as mala chicken (La Zi Ji), which is literally covered in Sichuan chillies and liberally sprinkled with Sichuan peppercorns.
Both the classic Sichuanese fish-fragrant eggplant and our eggplant dip recipe provide a gentler introduction to China’s seductive Sichuanese food or Sichuan food, if you like. Sichuan cuisine is the spiciest of Chinese cuisines, so this dish is a good entry point if you’re not normally a fan of fiery food.
It’s that ‘fish-fragrant’ flavour combination finished with some Chinkiang vinegar that makes fish-fragrant eggplant such an appealing dish. Often served as part of a banquet, or at minimum with a couple of other dishes, and steamed rice, the braised eggplants don’t need to be sizzling hot to be enjoyed – which also makes the dish perfect as a dip.
Some recipes for this braised eggplant dish include pork mince, but as we usually serve it with either mapo tofu or dry-fried long beans with ground pork, we don’t consider the minced pork necessary. This is not a dish that needs any extra flavour in its sauce – and nor does our eggplant dip recipe.
Tips to Making This Eggplant Dip Recipe
Just a few tips to making my deliciously rich and spicy eggplant dip recipe based on the classic Sichuan braised eggplant dish called fish-fragrant eggplant, starting with the key ingredients.
The Key Ingredients
They key ingredients of fish-fragrant eggplant are the eggplants and chilli bean sauce or chill bean paste.
Eggplants
For this eggplant dip recipe, I use what are commonly called Japanese eggplants. You can use other eggplants, such as graffiti eggplants, often called Sicilian eggplants, or Italian-style eggplants, but most other eggplant varieties are too small or too bitter.
Chilli Bean Sauce/Paste
A vital component of this eggplant dip recipe is the chilli bean paste. There are lots of variations of this paste, but the paste that you want is labelled Chili Bean Sauce and it usually states that it’s made from Sichuan-sourced chillies with broad beans.
Preparing this Eggplant Dip
Removing the excess moisture from the eggplant is an essential step when making this eggplant dip recipe. This is not because of any bitterness in these eggplants (large eggplants are not very bitter), but to remove some of the moisture in the eggplants to assist the speed of deep-frying, and also so you’re deep frying without splatter.
Cooking this Eggplant Dip
Some recipes for the Sichuan braised eggplant dish suggest deep-frying the eggplant batons at 200°C which will really find you scrambling to remove pieces of eggplant that are browning too fast, whereas a temperature of 180°C won’t induce panic or set off your smoke alarm. It’s always best to use a deep fry thermometer for this task. Check out our picks of the best thermometers in this post.
When it comes to the final texture of our eggplant dip, I’ve experimented with both pounding the dip in a mortar and pestle and using a food processor to further break down the eggplant into dip-friendly pieces. Lara likes the eggplant pieces to be larger than I do, whereas I prefer the textures of Middle-Eastern dips such as muttabul and baba ganoush. Experiment and find what you like best.
Serving this Eggplant Dip
Finally, note that this dip does not need to be served hot, as you would the original braised fish-fragrant eggplant dish. As with most dips, room temperature works and it tastes delicious cold as well. If you’re a sourdough baker, do try my Sichuan flavoured sourdough starter discard crackers, one of our best sourdough discard recipes. But of course you could always serve it warm with steamed rice, too. So good!
Eggplant Dip Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g eggplant
- Vegetable oil - enough for deep-frying
- 1 tbsp Sichuan style chilli bean paste
- 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
- 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
- 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns - crushed
- 60 ml chicken stock
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp cornflour - mixed with one tbsp cold water
- 1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp finely sliced garlic chives or spring onions
Instructions
- Halve the eggplants lengthways and halve again. Divide the eggplant pieces up so you have roughly 4 cm by 2 cm batons. Place in a colander with a dish underneath and sprinkle liberally with salt. Leave to drain for up to 30 minutes and pat dry.
- In a wok or a tall saucepan, place enough vegetable oil to cover the pieces of eggplant. We usually deep fry the eggplant pieces in batches. Heat the oil to 180°C and carefully adda batch of eggplant batons. Deep-fry until golden brown, usually for three minutes. Remove, drain on kitchen towels and deep fry the remaining batches.
- In a wok, heat up some of the leftover oil and over medium heat add the chilli bean paste until it splits and red oil is separated in the pan.
- Add the ginger and garlic and stir fry until they just start to colour. Add the Sichuan peppercorns and stir for a minute.
- Add the chicken stock and sugar and add the fried eggplant. After a minute or so, add the cornflour slurry and mix well. Reduce the heat to low.
- Let the sauce reduce and add the Chinkiang vinegar and light soy sauce. When the sauce has achieved a thick consistency, remove from the heat.
- Add the mixture to a food processor and pulse a few times. We still want some larger pieces of eggplant so do not overdo the blending.
- Add to a serving pate and decorate with the garlic chives or spring onions. Scoop up with sourdough crackers or fresh vegetable pieces.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make this spiced eggplant dip recipe inspired by fish-fragrant eggplant in the comments below. We love to know how our recipes turn out for you.
Hi, This turned out great. Only had plain corn chips to have it with but it turned out great. Reckon this would be good with some toasted sourdough. I’ll try that next time we make a Chinese feast! Cheers!
Hi Nate, great idea, but I’d make it a snack-sized version, it’s pretty rich!
Cheers & thanks for the rating!
T