Eggplant and Tofu Braised in Fragrant Sauce

One of my 'ambitious' goals this year is to eat less meat. This is a hard one for me because 1) I love love love meat and 2) I'm somewhat clueless when cooking vegetables. I usually put at least a little bit of meat in my vegetable dishes but tonight I decided to go all vegetarian by adding tofu to substitute for the meat. This dish was inspired by one of the recipes in Periplus' Homestyle Chinese Cooking cookbook and has a similar taste as the Spicy Eggplant Balado that I made a few months ago.


Ingredients:
5 medium Chinese eggplants
1 package of cooked fried (yellow) tofu
3 tablespoons oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 slices ginger, finely chopped
2 leeks, well washed and chopped
1 stalk lemon grass (white part only), sliced in half and bruised
4 green onions, finely chopped
1.5 tablespoons chili paste (I used Sambal Oelek)
3/8 cup water
1/2 cup fried shallots (optional)

Sauce:
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons vinegar
1.5 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon mirin
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Cut eggplants length wise and then cut each half into 2-inch pieces.
• Combine all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
• Stir fry garlic, ginger, leek, lemon grass and eggplants over medium heat in a heavy bottom pan or a wok for 4 minutes until the eggplants absorb the oil and begin to soften.
  
• Add in tofu, green onion and the chili paste and cook for another 2 minutes.
• Add the sauce and mix carefully to combine all the ingredients.
• Add the water and cover the pan with a lid, lower the heat and simmer for 6 minutes.
• Sprinkle with fried shallots on top, stir one more time and serve.