First fry: Cut your eggplant into finger size thick sticks. Envelop your eggplant sticks with corn starch and rest the mixture for 10 minutes. Heat up half a pot of oil, put one stick into the pot to test the temperature, if the stick starts to sizzle immediately, the oil is ready to fry. Fry the eggplant till it’s golden brown and starts to get meltingly soft. Stir the sticks while they are frying to avoid them from sticking together. Drain the eggplant sticks and use kitchen paper to suck up the extra oil.
Prepare the sauce: While your eggplant is swimming in the oil pool, you can start to prepare the sauce for the second sauté. Put doubanjiang, soja sauce, black vinegar and sugar in one bowl and mix them together.
Second fry: Chop up your garlic cloves and dry hot pepper into tiny bits. Heat up a pan and put a small amount of oil. Saute the garlic and dry hot pepper till you smell the aroma. Add in your sauce and then the eggplant sticks. Stir-fry all the ingredient until they are well mixed. There you have your double fry Sichuan style eggplant.
Variation for meat lovers: The same ingredient as above, plus Heat up your pan and pour a tablespoon of neutral oil in the pan. Add in the ground pork and saute de meat in with high heat. Once the oil turns clear, and in the minced garlic and dry hot pepper, then follow the steps above.