Vietnamese Pickled/Fermented Eggplant- Recipe + Video Tutorial

Vietnamese pickled eggplants are traditionally used (white cà pháo or firecracker eggplant) but they are super hard to find for me in Upstate New York. Instead I used these beautiful thai eggplants and they only take about 3-4 days to pickle/ferment. You can find these round eggplants called “kermit” or white “cà pháo” at the asian markets. They can also be referred as south macrocarpon, gboma or African eggplant.

“Thai” eggplants during the summer months and they are the size of small golf balls. Traditionally the white or Kermit Eggplants are the ones that we used growing up but all I could find were the Thai variety which still turned out pretty darn nice!

These Vietnamese salted eggplants aka “Ca phao muoi” is rural dish that is usually reserved to be eaten with steamed rice in the country. The stalks are removed and are scored in halves or quarters for faster fermentation and penetration of pickle brine. Galangal is also traditionally used to make these as well but I’m going to skip this since they are hard to find.

These can traditionally take up to 28 days to ferment so these are more of a quick pickle/ferment by way use of vinegar. Next time I’ll try it with just a salt curing brine!

INGREDIENTS

Pickle brine:
1/2 lb white round eggplant (Kermit, Thai…)
4 cups water
2 cup white vinegar
2 thin slices of unpeeled ginger
2 garlic cloves - smashed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tsp Red Boat fish sauce
Half of a long red chili pepper

PREPARATION

1. Add all pickle brine ingredients into a small pot and let boil and mix well until all salt and sugar is dissolved. Once it boils, turn off stove, remove from burner and then let cool 15 min.
2. While brine is cooling. Cut stems off the eggplants and rinse well under cold water. Cut eggplant into halves or quarters but don't cut all the way through the eggplant. (Eggplants are sliced in order to absorb all the flavor)
3. Pack eggplants into jar, add chili pepper slices.
3. Pour pickle brine mixture over the eggplant and make sure eggplants are completely submerged during pickling process.
4. Add fish sauce, put on lid and let ferment for 3-4 days, when it changes color to a yellow’ish hue and has a semi-sour taste you can transfer to fridge.
4. Wait two days, transfer to fridge, and enjoy cold!