Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant with Thickened Sauce

My Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant consists of deep-fried sliced eggplant stuffed with prawn/shrimp paste. The soy and mirin based thickened sauce poured over the stuffed eggplant adds another dimension to the dish.

The combination of melting eggplant and flavoursome soft prawn/shrimp filling gives you great pleasure. It is a home-cooking dish, but the prawn/shrimp makes you feel like you are having a treat. Grated daikon and ginger placed on the pile of Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant are a must.

Bite-sized eggplant slices and prawns/shrimps as a filling make this dish elegant. But if you want you can use pork mince/ground pork or chicken mince/ground chicken instead of prawn/shrimp.

Do You call it Stuffed Eggplant or Eggplant Sandwich?

I often ponder on what to call my recipes in English. It can be quite a challenge to translate the words, taking into account cultural and social background. Today’s dish is a classic case.

The Japanese name for Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant is ‘nasu no hasami age’ (茄子の挟み揚げ). ‘Nasu’ (茄子) is eggplant and there was no problem with it. The word ‘age‘ (揚げ) means deep-frying, which is OK too.

The problem is the word  ‘hasami’ (挟み), which comes from the verb ‘hasamu’ (挟む). It means put/insert/get stuck between. The closest translation is probably ‘sandwich’.

Incidentally, Google Translate tells you that the translation of ‘hasami age‘ is fried scissors!! The word ‘hasami‘ can also mean scissors, although the Kanji character is different – 鋏, not 挟み. It’s so funny.

I could have called today’s dish Eggplant Sandwich, but then people might think that the filling is eggplant. Also, my eggplant pieces are not completely separated to sandwich the filling.

I am aware that Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant implies that a large halved eggplant cup is filled with prawn/shrimp stuffing. In fact, that’s what you see on the web when you Google search this recipe.

To imply that the dish is not quite the same, I added the sauce that is served with the eggplants to the recipe name. But I don’t think it helps people imagine the shape of my Stuffed Eggplant.

What’s in my Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant with Thickened Sauce

The key ingredients are eggplants and prawns/shrimps. You don’t need to have toppings, but I think they add a refreshing flavour to the deep-fried dish.

• Thin eggplants
• Flour to dust before frying
• Oil for deep-fry (not in the photo)

Filling

• Uncooked prawns/shrimps
• Finely chopped green onions
• Grated ginger
• Cooking sake
• A pinch of salt

Thickened Sauce

• Dashi stock
• Soy sauce
• Mirin
• Corn flour/cornstarch

Toppings

• Grated daikon (white radish)
• Grated ginger

I used thin eggplants of about 15cm/6″ long, 4cm/1½” wide. This allowed me to make a bite-size Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant. I have not tried it, but you should be able to use a fat large eggplant and make a few very large pieces if you cannot find thin eggplants.

Instead of grated daikon and ginger, you can sprinkle finely chopped green onions over.

How to make Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant with Thickened Sauce

Due to oxidation, freshly cut eggplant discolours fast when exposed to the air. So, I slice the eggplant as late as possible in the cooking process.

1. Make thickened sauce.
2. Make prawn/shrimp paste.
3. Slice eggplant.
4. Fill eggplant pieces with prawn/shrimp paste.
5. Coat the stuffed eggplant with flour.
6. Deep-fry.
7. Place Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant pieces in a serving bowl, pour the thickened sauce over them and place the topping on the pile of the eggplant.

Eggplant pieces and the filling can be easily separated when deep-frying, causing a disastrous outcome. To prevent this from happening, I kept one end of the two eggplant slices intact, making a shape of oven pinch mitts with two slices. Dusting the surface of the inside of the eggplant piece also helps keep the filling stuck to the eggplant.

I did not use a large amount of oil to deep-fry.  I used a small pan, and the oil was only 2-2.5cm/¾-1” deep. You only need to fry for 1 minute on each side.

Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant is delicious on its own but having it with a thickened sauce makes is even tastier. The recipe card servings assume it is a main, but you can serve it as a side or even a finger food with the thickened sauce as a dipping sauce.

Yumiko

5 from 1 vote

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Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant with Thickened Sauce

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

My Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant is deep-fried eggplant slices stuffed with prawn/shrimp paste. The soy and mirin based thickened sauce poured over the stuffed eggplants adds another dimension to the dish.

Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant with Thickened Sauce can be a main as well as a side dish. It can even be a finger food.

Cook Time assumes that the stuffed eggplant is deep-fried in 4 batches.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Appetiser, Main, Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: dried shrimp recipe, eggplant recipe

Serves: 2 as a main

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 2 thin eggplants (about 180g/6.3oz in total, note 1)
• 2 tbsp flour
• Oil to deep-fry

Filling

• 200g/7.1oz prawns/shrimps peeled and deveined (note 2)
• 1 tbsp finely chopped green onion
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp cooking sake
• A pinch of salt

Thickened Sauce

• 120ml/4.1 fl oz dashi stock
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• ¾ tbsp corn flour/cornstarch

Toppings

• 1 tbsp grated daikon , excess liquid removed
• 1 tsp grated ginger

Instructions

1. Put all the Thickened Sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat.

2. As the sauce warms up, the colour of the sauce changes from cloudy light brown to semi-transparent dark brown. Stir occasionally to avoid lumps in the sauce. When it starts boiling, turn the heat off.

3. Put all the Filling ingredients in a food processor and whizz until the mixture becomes paste (note 3). It is OK to have tiny prawn bits in the paste. Transfer the paste to a bowl.

4. Trim the stem off the eggplant. Starting from the trimmed end, slice the eggplant crosswise at 5mm/ 3⁄16" thick, leaving 5mm/ 3⁄16" uncut at the bottom. Then slice at 5mm/ 3⁄16" from the first cut all the way. This will make a disc with a deep incision in the centre.

5. Slice the rest of the eggplant in the same way until the end (note 4).

6. Place the flour on a plate or a tray. Dust the inside of the eggplant pieces with flour.
7. For each piece of eggplant, widen the opening and fill the inside with the prawn paste using a small spatula or a cutlery knife.
8. Smooth the surface of the prawn paste and coat all around the stuffed eggplant piece with flour.
9. Fill a deep-frying pan or a shallow saucepan with oil to 2-2.5cm/¾-1” deep (note 5). Heat the oil to 170°C/338°F.

10. Gently drop several eggplant pieces to the oil (do not overcrowd) and cook for 1 minute. Turn them over and cook further 1 minute, then transfer to a tray lined with a couple of pieces of kitchen paper.

11. Repeat until all eggplant is cooked.

12. Place the eggplant pieces in shallow serving bowls, pour the sauce over them.

13. Squeeze water out of grated daikon by pinching it with two fingers and a thumb, shaping into a small mountain. Place it on the eggplant pile, then place grated ginger on top of the daikon.

Recipe Notes

1. My eggplants were about 15cm/6" long and the fattest part was about 4cm/1½" in diameter.

You could use a very large eggplant that is most commonly available in Australia. You will have large stuffed eggplant, not bite-size eggplant.

2. I used frozen uncooked peeled prawns/shrimps, but you can of course use fresh prawns/shrimps.

3. If you don’t have a food processor, you can make a paste using a cooking knife. Chop the prawns into small pieces, then using the side of the knife, flatten the prawn pieces to make paste.

4. Depending on the length of your eggplant, the number of pieces you get varies.

5. To minimise the amount of oil, I used a small pan to deep fry and cooked the eggplant in 4 batches.

6. Nutrition per serving as a main. It assumes 1/2 of the thickened sauce is consumed and total of 40g/1.4oz of oil is absorbed into the stuffed eggplants.

serving: 268g calories: 332kcal fat: 22g (34%) saturated fat: 1.8g (9%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 6.1g monounsaturated fat: 13g cholesterol: 126mg (42%) sodium: 835mg (35%) potassium: 402mg (11%) carbohydrates: 16g (5%) dietary fibre: 3.1g (12%) sugar: 4.9g protein: 16g vitamin a: 5% vitamin c: 4.4% calcium: 5.3% iron: 5%