Greetings!
Here's a dish that I came to know when I moved from my hometown to another town to continue my studies, it is called "Tortang Talong". The twist on this dish is that the eggplants are boiled instead of grilled and it is cooked on wood instead of gas. Grilling the eggplant is the most popular known way of cooking Tortang Talong.
At first, I quite don't like this dish because of course, a young boy like me back then is not fond of this dish (I was 8 years old at the time). But as time passes by and since my elder sister is frequently cooking this dish I started to like it.
This dish is also versatile because you can cook it other than boiling the eggplant. The eggplant can be grilled instead of boiling, after grilling the skin of the eggplant should be removed. Grilling also gives the dish a grilled and smoky taste as opposed to boiling.
Sometimes this dish is cooked with ground meat added on top of the mixture or added directly to the mixture together with minced tomatoes. Sometimes flour is also added to the mixture. Sometimes the grilled version of this dish is fried with breading mix after the eggplant is dipped in the beaten egg.
This version of Tortang Talong is very soft given the fact that the skin of the eggplant is included.
By the way, the cooking steps that I presented on this blog may look very long but you will be surprised that it is quite quick and easy to do.
So, without further ado, here's I cook this seldom cooked version of Tortang Talong
- Eggplant
- Egg
- Salt (to taste)
- Cooking Oil (for frying)
Wash and prepare the eggplant
Prepare the eggs
1. Boil all the eggplant (you can use any cooking container if you want
2. If it starts to boil, let it boil for additional 5 minutes
3. After 5 minutes get a fork then poke one eggplant. If the fork fingers' goes through easily then it is boiled
4. Remove from the boiling water
5. Remove or cut the upper part of all the eggplant
6. Split all the eggplants into half to see if there are any damaged eggplant, if you see a damaged eggplant remove it, or if you see some part of the eggplants is damaged remove them also
7. Using a fork, spoon, or ladle mash the eggplants
8. Stop mashing when you got this consistent, or you can make it finer if you want
9. Add all the eggplants directly to the mashed eggplant (you can use more eggs if you want).
10. Stir using a spoon or fork, add some salt while stirring
11. If you got this consistency, stirring is done
12. Heat the frying into medium heat until you see smoke coming out from the frying pan itself
13. Slowly add some cooking oil
14. Using a ladle, scoop a full then put it in the frying pan
15. The mixture is quite quick to turn golden brown so you have to keep an eye on the bottom side of the mixture by usually gently peeking at the bottom side of the mixture
16. When the bottom side has turned golden brown turn it using a ladle
17. When both sides have turned golden brown remove it from the frying pan then set it aside. Repeat the step until you cook all the mixture
