Chinese Style Eggplant

This is my standby eggplant recipe which absolutely works everytime, without fail.  It's adapted from an old Charmaine Solomon recipe (one of my many food heroes!), where I opt to roast the eggplant.  There is no salting or peeling involved, and regardless of how seedy the eggplant is, it never tastes bitter.  This is originally a vegetarian recipe, but feel free to add pork and baby prawns/shrimp to this - yes Bambi, that means you!  :) And this has a bit of fame attached to it - I mentioned this recipe as part of a Chef's Challenge on the radio I participated in on 702 ABC Sydney quite a few years ago. 


Ingredients:
2-3 medium sized eggplants
olive oil for roasting
salt and pepper
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
2 tbsps white vinegar
1 tbsp Chinese/Shao Xing wine or dry sherry
2 tbsps sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ( more) chili oil - I use a Japanese brand
1-2 tsps sweet chili oil
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
peanut or olive oil for frying
chopped spring onions for garnish

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat oven to around 200 degrees Celsius (around 400 F)
2. Slice off and discard stalk end of eggplants.  Halve lengthways then cut into wedges lengthways around an inch thick, then cut into 2 inch lengths so end up with hefty cubey wedges.
3. Put the eggplant in a big mixing bowl and slosh in olive oil generously, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Mix it up and lay in a single layer in a roasting pan. Roast for around 30 minutes until tender and golden. Give the tray a bit of a jiggle and shake halfway through the cooking.
4. In the meantime, mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, sugar, sesame oil, chili oil and sweet chilli sauce in a small jug or bowl (a 2-cup capacity Pyrex measuring cup works well with this as you can measure and mix as you go along).
5. Heat up your wok with around 1 tbsp of the oil.  Add the ginger and garlic and stir quickly over medium heat until golden (this will only take a minute or so).  If you're adding pork or shrimp, do it now. Add the sauce mixture, bring to a boil then pop the roasted eggplants in and cook over high heat while mixing and turning until the eggplant has absorbed most of the sauce.
6. Transfer to your serving dish as soon as it's cooked as leaving it in a steel wok will give the dish a metallic taste.  Sprinkle over spring onions and serve.