茄盒
茄盒 is a family specialty and one of my personal favorite ways to enjoy eggplant or lotus root. This recipe is for eggplant, but it's also extremely good with lotus root (and in fact I prefer it with lotus root). The dish looks complicated (with the shallow frying), but is actually surprisingly simple. As usual with most dishes I learned from my family, I don't have any measurements. This dish is fairly forgiving though, and as long as you get the general idea correct it'll probably turn out fine.
Active Time: 35 min
Total Time: 35 min
Ingredients
> eggplant (1 large)
> tempura flour + water
> ground pork (2/3 lb)
> green onion (2 small or 1 large stalk)
> ginger, grated (1/4 tsp)
> soy sauce
> salt
> Sichuan peppercorn
> potato starch (2-3 tbsp)
> water
> neutral oil
Instructions
1. Make the filling by mixing together ground pork, green onion, ginger, soy sauce, salt, Sichuan peppercorn, potato starch. Add water little by little, stirring the water in each time, until the filling takes on the desired thick consistency.
2. Make the batter by mixing together tempura flour, water, and a little bit of salt until you get a relatively thick consistency.
3. Peel the eggplant skin and trim off the ends.
4. Cut the eggplant into approximately 1/2 cm slices. Alternate between slicing almost all the way through and slicing all the way through. You should end with many eggplant disks that each have a slice almost all the way through.
5. Stuff the eggplant with filling. Not too much, but enough. The thickness of the filling should be at least the thickness of one eggplant "bun" but no more than twice that.
6. Preheat a small pot / pan with about 1 inch of neutral oil at the bottom over medium-high heat.
7. Dunk the eggplant "burger" in the tempura batter, and place it into the oil.
8. Double-fry the burger. Fry for about 30 seconds on each side first, enough such that it maintains its shape. Set aside on a wire rack. Then fry again later for a couple minutes on each side, or until golden brown and fully cooked through.
9. Add a bit of salt on top. Serve and enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
> You can also make this dish with lotus root (which I actually prefer). It's essentially the same process, except you substitute lotus root for eggplant. And you cut all the way through each time and actually form a "burger" instead of something more akin to a pita.
> Taste test the filling before filling. Using a small pan, fry up a tiny pork patty and taste for seasoning. Adjust the salt / soy sauce as necessary. You'll want it to be significantly saltier than dumpling filling because 1) the eggplant will be fairly bland, and 2) this won't be eaten with a dipping sauce.
> It's very important to peel the eggplant skin (at least according to my dad) -- this is though and will leave an unpleasant texture!
> The tempura batter should be relatively thick, similar to the batter that you'd use for making tempura. Start with 1/2 cup of tempura flour, and slowly mix in water until the desired consistency is reached.