When deep fried vegetables are soaked in a soy sauce flavoured broth, the vegetables absorb the flavour from the broth and transform to a delicious dish. Although deep fried, Fried Vegetables in Broth is not oily at all.
It is a handy side dish or salad that you can prepare ahead of time.
Marinating Time is the minimum required.
- Oil to deep fry
- 80g/2.8oz okra (I had 8 okra)
- 80g/2.8oz yellow capsicum
- 80g/2.8oz red capsicum
- 80g/2.8oz asparagus
- 100g/3.5oz eggplant (note 2)
- 300ml/10oz dashi stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- A pinch of salt
- Finely julienned shallots/scallions (white part), curled in ice water
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Mix the Broth ingredients in a container with a lid that is large enough to fit all the vegetables snuggly.
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Okra - trim the tip of the stem end. Run your knife around the stem end, where the stem and the pod meet, to remove the black line around the top of the pod (see the photo in the post). Stab the side of the pod to make a tiny incision.
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Capsicum - remove the stem and seeds, then slice vertically to 1.5cm/⅝" wide strips.
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Asparagus - trim ends and cut to about 5cm/2” long pieces.
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Eggplant - trim the stem off. If using a short thin eggplant, cut it vertically to make 4-6 wedges. If the length of the wedges is much longer than 5cm/2”, cut them in half. If using a large eggplant, cut the piece in half vertically, then slice each piece vertically to 1cm/⅜” thickness.
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Fill a frying pan with oil to about 1.5cm/⅝" deep and heat to 170C/338F.
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Fry same ingredients together for about 1 minute, turning over half way. Fry vegetables in a few batches so the oil is not over-crowd (note 3).
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Transfer the fried vegetables to a tray lined with kitchen paper to absorb oil. Then while still hot, transfer them to the broth. (note 4)
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When all vegetables are placed in the broth, put the lid on and leave the container in the fridge for 30 minutes to a few hours (note 5).
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Place a few pieces each of the different vegetables in an individual bowl or a plate (note 6), topped with a small quantity of julienned shallots/scallions if using.
1. You can use other vegetables that are good to deep fry. You can also reduce the number of different vegetables. Please see my post for suggested vegetables.
2. I used ⅓ of a large eggplant. But if you are using small eggplants, you can use whole ones.
3. Depending on the size of the frying pan, the amount of vegetables you can fry at once varies. If using a large frying pan, you can fry two kinds of vegetables together. Just ensure that the oil is not over-crowded.
4. I transfer the vegetables of the first batch while frying the second batch, then keep moving this way like a production line.
5. You can eat Fried Vegetables in Broth (Vegetables Agebitashi) after 30 minutes of marinating. But the flavour of the broth gets absorbed into vegetables and intensifies when the vegetables are marinated in the broth for a while. It is also great to eat cold vegetables when the weather is hot.
6. I placed the same vegetables together and spread out the different colours, but you can place them randomly if you wish.
7. Fried Vegetables in Broth (Vegetables Agebitashi) keeps 3 days in the fridge. But the colour of the eggplant skins fades away if left in the broth too long.
8. Nutrition per serving as a side. Assumed 40ml of oil is absorbed into vegetables, 20% of the broth is soaked into the vegetables which is probably overstated.
serving: 200g calories: 142kcal fat: 10g (15%) saturated fat: 0.8g (4%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 1.8g monounsaturated fat: 7g cholesterol: 0.7mg (0%) sodium: 593mg (25%) potassium: 435mg (12%) carbohydrates: 9.6g (3%) dietary fibre: 2.5g (10%) sugar: 5.2g protein: 4.2g vitamin a: 16% vitamin c: 172% calcium: 2.7% iron: 6.8%