Eggplants!!

Eggplants are beautiful. The deep purple color, the silly, rubbery texture... I am in love with eggplants. I simply don't know how to eat them. My beautiful husband bought me the cookbook in the photograph above - The Gloriously Gluten-Free Cookbook by Vanessa Maltin. I adore this book because it has totally practical yet authentic Italian, Asian, and Mexican dishes. So I immediately went to the index to see what the book had for eggplants. My eyes fixated on fried eggplant with garlic-ginger sauce and jasmine rice. Yum!!

This one requires timing. First chicken, start the sauce and rice at the same time, then the eggplant last. (I added a little bit of my own flair and added chicken.)

1. Chicken: throw some chicken in a pan with a light drizzle of honey, 4 basil leaves, and chili flakes
2. Sauce: throw all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium (and stir) until the sauce because thicker...or for about 15-20 minutes. Set aside when done.
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup *shiitake mushrooms sliced thin (we couldn't figure out which ones were shiitake so we winged it, haha, fun cooking moment)
1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup fish sauce - which I sub in more veggie stock instead
1/2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
2 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs chili flakes (good amount of spice! If you want your mouth to be on fire, add more)
1 tbs ground ginger
3. Cook jasmine rice
4. Fry eggplant! Mix up 2 eggs and 1/4 GF soy-sauce in a bowl. In a wider bowl mix up 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup corn starch, and 1 or 1/2 tbs salt. I only used one eggplant, which is a ton anyways...so cut it up about 1/2 inch thick into however long you want (I did about 2 inches long. Heat up oil in a deep-ish pan. Dish eggplant into egg mix, then coat totally in the flour, and fry 'em up!!
5. Put it all on a plate with sauce over, but go easy on the sauce it's rich. YUMMMMMMMMM