Fried Eggplants with Coconut Milk (Terung Goreng Dengan Saus Santan)

Locale: Indonesia

Source: Sri Owen, Indonesian Regional Cooking [p. 108]

Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 4 long thin eggplants, cut in half lengthways (or 2 large fat ones, cut in quarters
  • 2 tbs salt
  • vegetable oil

Sauce:

  • 2 tbs peanut or olive oil
  • 4 shallots or 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 1-3 red chillies, de-seeded and finely sliced
  • 0.75 c very thick coconut milk
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tbs mild vinegar
  • 1 tbs dark soy sauce (optional
  • 1 tsp crumbled shrimp paste (optional)

Steps

  1. Rub eggplants with salt and put them in a colander. Keep aside fro 2-3 hours. Rinse thoroughly, and dry them.

  2. Deep fry the eggplant in batches, 3-4 minutes each. Drain on paper.

  3. Heat oil and stir-fry the shallots, chillies and garlic for 2 minutes. Add the thick coconut milk, salt and pepper. Simmer this for 10 minutes, then add the vinegar and soy sauce. Continue to simmer another 5 minutes, until the sauce is thick. Adjust the seasoning.

  4. Put the fried eggplants on a plate, and pour the sauce over them.

Notes

  1. I used small purple eggplants, about 3 inches long. I quartered them lengthwise, then cut into 1-inch chunks. I pan-fried them in a small amount of oil. They absorbed all the oil, but I continued to dry-fry them until they changed color. I then put them aside, and made the sauce. Once the sauce was ready, I added the eggplant back into the sauce, let it cook some more, then served.

  2. I added 2-3 tbs of peanut sauce to the sauce, while it was cooking. The peanut sauce is pretty dry, so I often add coconut cream to it.

Log

  1. 2025-10-25: