Eggplant with garlic sauce
Ingredients
- 450 g Asian eggplants (about 2 pcs)
- 500 g minced pork
- 40 g onion about 1 pcs, cut into pieces
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 pcs shallot (cut into pieces)
Seasoning for the pork
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp garlic powder
Sauce mixture
- 1 tsp shrimps sauce (fig1)
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar (fig2)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp chicken powder
- 350 ml water
- 1 tbsp Lao Gan Ma chili in oil (fig3 / optional)
Starch mixture
- 1.5 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp water
Instructions
- Cut the eggplant into even small pieces. Soak them into the water with 1 tbsp of white vinegar. Put it aside.
- Heat the pan with 1tsp of oil over medium high heat. Add in the pork and pan-fry for 30 seconds. Add in the seasoning and mix it well. Stir fry the pork until golden. Dish it up and put it aside.
- Steam the eggplant on a steaming rack (make sure the skin side up). Steam it over high heat for about 3 mins. Dish it up and put it aside.
- Heat the pan over high heat. Add in 1 tsp of oil. Add in the onion and shallots. Stir fry until the onion is soft.
- Add in the pork and sauce mixture. Bring the sauce mixture to boil. Add in half of the starch mixture. Add in the eggplants and mix well. Add more starch mixture to thicken the sauce if necessary. Dish it up and serve. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Ingredients - Click to enlarge the image
Other tips
1 To keep the purple color of the eggplants. Steam it over high heat within 2-4 mins. Overheating it will make the color turns brown
2 Eggplants will be very soft after steam. But the remaining heat from the eggplant will continue to cook the eggplants and make it softer after.
3 Don't stack up the cooked eggplants. And don't cook for too long after adding it back to the pan.
4 This brand of chili oil is not spicy at all. If you using other brand, please test it out yourself.
5 Original recipe will replace the shrimp sauce and chili oil by 1.5 tbsp of Spicy bean sauce (doubanjiang)
6 Minced pork doesn't need to marinade in advance. Otherwise, it will be harder to loosen it while cooking.
Other tips
1 To keep the purple color of the eggplants. Steam it over high heat within 2-4 mins. Overheating it will make the color turns brown
2 Eggplants will be very soft after steam. But the remaining heat from the eggplant will continue to cook the eggplants and make it softer after.
3 Don't stack up the cooked eggplants. And don't cook for too long after adding it back to the pan.
4 This brand of chili oil is not spicy at all. If you using other brand, please test it out yourself.
5 Original recipe will replace the shrimp sauce and chili oil by 1.5 tbsp of Spicy bean sauce (doubanjiang)
6 Minced pork doesn't need to marinade in advance. Otherwise, it will be harder to loosen it while cooking.