Adobo Eggplant

Or how to use it up. This is a made-up recipe; this isn't fancy, it is home cooking. I did look up the ingredients for the seasonings in order to get the proportions right.

Trim and cut 4 to five small to medium long eggplants in diagonal pieces. Lightly saute these in canola oil just until slightly soft. You will probably need to do this in 3 batches; set them aside on a plate as they finish cooking. I had a small piece of pork - about 1/3 lb. - that I sliced into 1/2 x 2-in. strips. I cooked the pork along with half a medium size onion, sliced;

Combine 1/4 cup shoyu, 1/4 cup + 1 T. rice vinegar, about 1-1/2 tsp. sugar (I'm sure I used less; I don't care for sweet food) and a grinding of fresh black pepper. Put this sauce mixture in the pan and heat until slightly bubbling. Add the eggplant back to the pan, along with 1/2 cup hot water. Heat all of the ingredients through, then turn off the heat.

Take a package of Sun Noodles Yakisoba, gently break up the noodles into a microwave-safe bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of water, and nuke this for a minute or two.

Note: this yakisoba does not come with sauce. Costco carries a multi-pack - more economical plus you can freeze it.

Drain the water, plate the noodles and top with eggplant mixture and, of course, some sauce. If you have cilantro and sliced green onions, garnish heavily with those, but I had neither on hand.

The DH took the leftovers to school for lunch, the pinay office staff all tasted and declared they loved it, "cause it's not strong like adobo usually is". Must be the Japanese rice vinegar and light hand with the pepper.

I've written about making adobo-style eggplant before here, but the seasoning and the noodles made this a winner.

There is another eggplant recipe with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar I make over and over because it's delicious. I thought I'd written about the banchan-style vegetable recipe I made up because I don't want to eat Korean takeout just to eat that. But I haven't done so yet, so that will be posted here soon.

But I think you might want to know about the second meeting of the Whole Ox Deli Dinner Fan Club before that? Coming sooner!