Paksiw Na Talong Sa Gata

Eggplant Paksiw in Coconut Milk (No fish)

The Philippines is a land rich in coconuts.  Therefore, there are a lot of different dishes cooked in coconut milk there.  This dish is one of them but I concocted this myself because my family was not fond of dishes in coconut milk when I was growing up thus, I never learned to cook this dish at my home. 

I had an eggplant dish that tasted so good when I visited a college friend when I was in school.  They are from Pampanga Province but my friend and her sister and their maid were renting an apartment while they were in school in Manila.  That was the first time and the last time I had this dish but I still remember how it tasted.  I did not bother to ask for the recipe or how it was cooked because I did not know how to cook yet at that time.  I was not interested in cooking, only eating.  All I noticed was there was no meat or fish in it, only the eggplants and coconut milk.  I must have eaten the whole plate of it and did not even think that I was only a visitor invited to share their lunch.  It was that good!

Now that I passionately cook a lot and write the recipes of what I make, I remembered that one dish I liked so much after many decades. So, I came up with this recipe that as far as my taste memory is concerned is very close to what I ate and liked back then.

I vouch that this is very delicious especially being a Filipino.  And to top that deliciousness, you can dip it in the very smelly, stinky, brown-grey liquid called “Bagoong Balayan” from Pangasinan.  Whew!  I’m new to that but it’s so good!  However, I can only use it at the table when I’m alone. 

Ingredients:

• 2 long Japanese eggplants or more
• 1 TBSP. Bacon grease (optional) or you can use cooking oil
• 3 thin slices of ginger root
• 1 shallot, sliced thin (or substitute ½ yellow onion, sliced thin)
• 2 garlic cloves, diced or minced
• 1 large fresh jalapeno pepper cut in rings or whole
• Dash of chili pepper seeds and flakes (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk
• ¼ cup vinegar
• 1 tsp. salt or to taste

Procedure:

Render the fat from a slice or two of bacon cut in smaller strips.  Choose the fatty slices. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Or use bacon grease if you are saving them.  Otherwise you can also use 2 TBSP cooking oil for pre-cooking the eggplants.

You can exclude the bacon, bacon grease or oil but blanch the eggplants in boiling water for a few seconds.  Drain, then set aside.  Proceed with the recipe as below.

Wash and cut the eggplants crosswise, about 2 ½ “ long then cut it in half lengthwise.  Pre-cook them in the bacon grease or cooking oil.  Semi fry each side of the eggplants.  Do them in batches, remove from the pan and set them aside.  They don’t have to be cooked all the way.  This is done because eggplants absorb a lot of oil or liquid. 

When all are done, pour the coconut milk in the emptied pan that you used for the bacon and eggplant.  Add the ginger root, shallot or onions and the garlic, jalapeno pepper and the pieces of fried bacon (if you have them).  Add the vinegar and salt, stir before it boils and let it boil gently.  Simmer for about 5 minutes but only disturb it once or twice to mix otherwise the vinegar will taste raw. 

Add the eggplants and simmer longer until the eggplants are done and it does not taste too vinegary anymore. 

If it is too sour from the vinegar, add ¼ tsp. sugar.  Taste and adjust the salt to your taste.  Sprinkle a dash of chili pepper flakes if you like it hotter. 

You can use more eggplants but you don’t have to adjust the recipe too much. 

NOTE: Use non-reactive pot when cooking with vinegar. Stainless steel is non-reactive and so is Pyrex glass. Cast irons are okay but it may react with vinegar which may not be toxic but may alter the flavor. What to avoid is unlined aluminum pot. Aluminum reacts with acids that may have an unsafe result healthwise.