America's test kitchen

This salad was a home run. There's a lot about it that I like, but my favorite part was the dressing. Made with lime juice and fish sauce, it's funky and irresistible. Although dehydrating the eggplant in the microwave was weird, it was perhaps it's worthwhile, since the eggplant fried up nicely and did not absorb too much oil, as sometimes happens. There are a few things I do differently than the recipe suggests, mainly to simplify things.

I use chopped peanuts instead of fried shallots.

In the future, I'll use two out of three of the herbs listed. I'll probably omit the mint, since I prefer cilantro and basil.

I never deal with deep frying. I simply fried the eggplant in a very generous amount of oil over high heat. No regrets on that.

We didn't have a Thai chili on hand, so used cayenne instead. Use .25 tsp for a gentle kick, and .5 tsp for a moderate kick of spice.

The proportions on this first iteration were a bit off. I went heavy on the tomatoes this time, and will scale that amount back to one measured cup before slicing. Also, don't overdo it with the herbs.

The recipe video on ATK talks about the various eggplant types, which was fun to learn about. The store didn't have Japanese eggplants, as the recipe calls for, so we used graffiti eggplants instead. I liked that they were denser and less watery than globe eggplants. I'm excited to make this recipe again, perhaps with another eggplant variety.