Recipe adapted from: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-eggplant-garlic-sauce/
*Note: the first time I made this I used leftover pork mince from crystal dumpling filling and skipped the spring onions which may differ from the actual recipe!
There are many many ways to make this dish! Most restaurants will deep-fry the eggplants.
Tip: soak the eggplants in some salt water to soften it first.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- Sauce:
- 1 Tbsp spicy bean paste (la dou ban jiang)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsps sugar
- 1 Tbsp shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 2 eggplants (~6 cups), cut into strips of 6cm
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 thin slices ginger, julienned
- 100g ground pork (or chicken)
- 2 spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
- 5 dried red chilis
- 1 Tbsp shaoxing wine
Directions:
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside: spicy bean paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, shaoxing wine, fish sauce.
- Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a skillet on HIGH heat, add a tablespoon of oil and sear your eggplant pieces in two batches (~5mins per batch). Don’t crowd your pan. Your eggplants should be seared in one layer. If they’re overlapping too much, sear it in two or three batches depending on your pan size. When done, take your eggplants out of the pan and set them aside in a bowl.
- The eggplants will at first absorb the oil very quickly, but after a few minutes they’ll release some of that oil back in the pan. You want to cook them until the skin starts to blister/brown and the flesh starts to get soft.
- In the same pan, turn the heat down to MED-HIGH and add a tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant then add in the pork and cook until it has browned (~2mins).
- Remember: your pan will be pretty hot at this stage so try to move things around in the pan frequently so they don’t burn.
- Once the pork has browned, add in the sauce and stir-fry for another 30 seconds and add in the eggplants, spring onions, chili peppers and shaoxing wine. Stir-fry until everything is combined. Serve!
Abby Approved 