Eggplant with Garlic Sauce

This is a dish inspired by an eggplant dish my family and I had at a Szechuan restaurant once. It's slightly spicy, super garlicky, and really delicious with a bowl of jasmine rice.

Ingredients:
1 baby eggplant (I find that the smaller eggplants have less seeds and they're more tender)
2 scallions
1 hot pepper (I used a Korean long hot pepper but jalapeno would work)
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
oil (I used olive oil but any mildly flavored oil of your choice is great)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce**
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes OR 1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1/2 cup water

**Oyster sauce is a salty sweet condiment made by cooking down oysters and it's a staple in Chinese cooking. I've seen it in most grocery stores but you might need to venture to an Asian market to find it. However, if you can't find it, you could just use a 2:1 ratio of soy sauce and sugar instead. In this recipe, I would say use 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon brown sugar.

Start by roughly chopping the garlic, slicing the pepper, cutting the eggplant (I made little quarter circles but you could do strips or chunks), and chopping the scallions.

Then, in a large skillet (or wok), heat a bit of oil and add in the eggplant. When the eggplant has soaked up all of the oil, add in the garlic and hot peppers. Toss a bit before adding in the hot pepper flakes and then the water. When the water has been absorbed and the eggplant looks translucent and tender, add in the oyster sauce and toss until the ingredients are coated.

Then serve and add scallions as a garnish (and as a last minute onion-y touch). And enjoy!