Fish Soup with Sarawak Sour Eggplant

My Sarawakian Chinese neighbor is very pleased to give me some Sarawak sour eggplant.  She told me that the eggplant is really tasty to cook as soup with fresh fish.  Excited and can't wait to try, I take the eggplant without long-winded question and cook it as recommended. But... I was a kind of shocked. For the first time my cooking is really not to be as desired. There was kind of unpleasant smell and the taste is so weird (because the sarawak eggplant is a bit hard and taste different from the regular eggplant). I feel a bit guilty to throw away a pot of fish soup. Nobody is interested to eat it...  :(

Sarawak Sour Eggplant

Still not satisfied with the incident, I decided to ask for the actual recipe from my neighbor. I was lucky that I still keep one of the eggplant.  According to her recipe, the eggplant is actually really suitable for cooking as soup.  But the eggplant should be cooked until completely tenderize and the fish should be fried first before mixed into the eggplant soup to remove it unpleasant fishy smell. By following the recipe given by my neighbors, eventually I managed to cook the delicious soup. It was very tasty with a slightly sour taste.  Here I feel glad to share this recipe, it's totally adapted from my neighbor’s recipe...

Fish Soup with Sarawak Sour Eggplant

Main ingredient:

1. 1 Sarawak sour eggplant (sliced and de-seeds)
2. 300 gm fresh fish (I use red mullet)

Pounded ingredients:

1. 1  garlic
2. 2 shallots
3. 1 Inc ginger
4. 2 red chilies
5. 2 stalks of lemongrass

Seasoning ingredients:

1. 1 tbsp salt
2. 1 tsp sugar
3. 1 tbsp tom yam paste

Cooking Method:

• Deep-fry the fresh fish in hot oil until well done.  Set aside.
• Stir fry pounded ingredients in 2 tbsp oil until fragrant.  Add about 750ml water and bring to boil.
• Enter the Sarawak sour eggplant and then cover the pot. Simmer until the eggplant is completely tenderize and skins nearly separated.
• Add in seasoning ingredients and mix well.
• Add in the fish; keep simmering for a little while.  Done
• Garnish with chopped scallions before serving.