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.
- 2 thin eggplants (about 180g/6.3oz in total, note 1)
- 2 tbsp flour
- Oil to deep-fry
- 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
- 120ml/4.1 fl oz dashi stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- ¾ tbsp corn flour/cornstarch
- 1 tbsp grated daikon , excess liquid removed
- 1 tsp grated ginger
-
Put all the Thickened Sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Slice the rest of the eggplant in the same way until the end (note 4).
-
Place the flour on a plate or a tray. Dust the inside of the eggplant pieces with flour.
-
For each piece of eggplant, widen the opening and fill the inside with the prawn paste using a small spatula or a cutlery knife.
-
Smooth the surface of the prawn paste and coat all around the stuffed eggplant piece with flour.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Repeat until all eggplant is cooked.
-
Place the eggplant pieces in shallow serving bowls, pour the sauce over them.
-
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.
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%