Tortang Talong
This recipe comes from a friend who grew up in the Philippines and ate this for any meal of the day. It can be eaten for breakfast if you like. He described this dish after an unfortunate eggplant incident while watching America’s Got Talent.
Any meat one has can be used. Chicken, pork, or beef but apparently not with fish. You can add onion, garlic, or other aromatics as well but for him, often just meat, eggs, eggplant, and soy sauce.
I was distracted by the TV and forgot to mind the purple fruit in the hot box. It actually blew up. I had an eggplant mess, but putting it in a pan with scrambled eggs worked out as a quick fix and a tasty repast. For later iterations, I properly roasted the eggplant over the gas flames of the stove top and used breakfast sausage for the meat portion.
If you can find a Filipino eggplant for this dish please do, but if not the slender Chinese variety will do just fine. It works well with the small white eggplant as well, but harder to do with the common large Globe variety that is the American supermarket staple.
Turn on your gas burner to high and lay eggplant across as much flame as you can. Depending on the shape and length of the fruit you may have to roast it on one end and then the other. This is the same process I use for baba ganoush. The eggplant should be burned black on all sides when you are done. When I say burned black I mean it. The skin should be broken, cracked, and smelling like it was on fire which is the point of using an open flame. You can roast it under the broiler, but if so make sure to put some holes in the skin to avoid the exploding eggplant situation.
Once your eggplant is charred beyond what seems reasonable, set it aside to steam in a covered bowl or foil wrap. Use a non-stick pan to brown a sausage or two and when that is done, remove to a side plate and cut into small pieces. You can smash and brown sausage in bits if you please, but I like to brown the whole piece because it is the way I do it. Actually, I find that if the sausage is cooked like this it retains more juices but there are some who like more browning and drier meat. Have it your way.
Take your eggplant and remove charred skin. I usually use a serrated steak knife and holding the stem, scrape away the scaly carbonized layer. One reason I like to wrap the fruit in foil is that I can peel the skin into the foil and when done just use that to clean up the mess. The meat under the skin will be a nice brown and try to save as much of this as possible. When you have gotten as much of the black bits off that you can, take the eggplant and put it into a lightly buttered or oiled pan over low heat. I do like my non-stick for this.
Use a fork to press eggplant into the pan until it has spread pretty thin and top with crumbled sausage. Scramble an egg with a splash of soy sauce and pour over smushed eggplant and sausage then cook until egg is set. Flip over and cook other side. Remove to plate and enjoy your Tortang Talong.
Another dish for which I think a recipe is just not needed. Read the post and make an omelette.
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