Chinese Eggplant With Ground Pork
Succulent and juicy Chinese eggplant with minced pork smothered in savoury spicy Sichuan sauce that’s packed full of flavour. This dish is quick and easy to make and is the ultimate comfort food!
Equipment
- 1 Wok
Ingredients
- 175 g Ground pork
- 1 lb Chinese eggplant
- 1 Stalk Green onion
- 1-2 tsp Minced ginger
- 3-4 cloves Minced garlic
- 1-2 pieces Thai chili peppers optional
Sauce
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp White granulated sugar
- 1 tsp White pepper
- 1 Tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp Spicy broad bean paste (doubanjiang)
- 1/2 Cup Water Added to wok during cooking
Pork marinade
- 1 tsp Tapioca starch
- 1 tsp White granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp White pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp Cooking oil
- 1 Tbsp Water
- 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine added when stir-frying pork
Cornstarch slurry:
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1-2 Tbsp Cornstarch
Garnish
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
Instructions
Preparing The Ingredients
- Start by mincing your garlic and ginger and then set it aside.
- Next cut your green onion stalk into tiny slivers about 1/8-1/4 inch wide and then separate the white and green parts of the green onion and set them aside.
- Then prepare the sauce by combining the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and oyster sauce in a bowl and set it aside.
- Next, we’re going to marinade our ground pork. In another bowl, combine your ground pork with the soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, and water. Mix everything well together then add in your tapioca starch and mix everything well together. Then finally add in your cooking oil to the pork mixture and mix it evenly with the ground pork. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to marinade for at least 15-20 minutes.
- Now add oil to your wok and heat it up over medium heat.
Frying The Eggplant
- Now add oil to your wok and heat it up over medium heat.
- While our oil is heating up, we’re going to prepare our eggplants for frying. Cut each piece of eggplant into 2-3 inch sections and then cut each section into quarters so you end up with 4 pieces per section. Once done, set the eggplant aside.
- Your oil should be hot enough by this point. You can test this out by placing a chopstick into the oil and seeing if it sizzles. If it does, then the oil is hot enough.
- Now fry the eggplants for no more than 1-2 minutes and then immediately remove them from the oil and let the eggplants drain on some paper towels.
Putting Everything Together
- Pour out the hot oil and then heat the wok over medium low heat. Add back about 1 Tbsp of oil to the wok and let it heat up.
- Once the oil is hot enough, add in your minced garlic and ginger, along with the white parts of the green onion that you cut earlier.
- Let it cook for about 30 seconds to release all of the aromatics and then add your broad bean paste to the wok.
- Stir-fry everything together in the wok for another 10-15 seconds and then add in your ground pork.
- Spread the ground pork out on the wok and then add in your Shaoxing wine.
- Now let the ground pork cook for about 1 minute on one side and then flip it over and let it cook on this side for another minute.
- Once the ground pork starts to turn whitish in colour and is about 80% done, add in your eggplant to the wok.
- Mix everything well together then add in your sauce.
- Mix everything together then add in your water.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high heat and stir-fry everything for about a minute and then add in your cornstarch slurry to the sauce by pushing the ground pork and eggplant to the side, exposing the sauce.
- Mix the cornstarch and sauce well together which will thicken the sauce.
- Now mix everything together for another 10 seconds or so and add in the green parts of the green onion from earlier.
- Give it a few tosses and then drizzle in a little bit of sesame oil.
- Turn the stove off and mix everything together for another 5-10 seconds and then remove everything from the wok and serve while hot.