Pickled eggplants

I wanted to make my own Vietnamese pickled eggplants (ca phao), but I don't think they sell these types of eggplant here. Instead I found these:

 

They look very similar to the Vietnamese eggplant, but they weren't actually it. Mom already warned me that she tried to pickle them and they took forever to pickle up. But they were so small and cute I thought I’d give it a try.

We had a couple of sunny days so for two days I had them in the sun to dry. Don’t really know what the purpose of this is, but I read it somewhere and thought it can’t do much harm. After two days they were still firm, but the leaves were drying out. 

I removed the leaves and stem and poked several holes with a fork. Hopefully this helps them to pickle faster.

I boiled some white vinegar with sugar, a pinch of salt and some ground pepper. I also added a splash of sherry just because it was on the kitchen counter staring at me. It didn’t taste bad, so hopefully it’ll work out.

I sliced all the eggplants in half and put them in a clean jar. Then I poured the vinegar mixture on top and turned the jar upside down. The eggplants here and there turned brown and didn’t want to submerge in the vinegar, so I had to shake the jar once a while. It is now sitting in the fridge. I’ll give it another couple of days and see if it turns out the way I planned.