鱼香茄子
I never actually liked eggplant much growing up, but lately I've grown to enjoy it much more. In particular, this dish has recently become one of my preferred vegetable dishes to order when going to a Chinese restaurant. It has a wonderful flavor, a really nice texture (when it's cooked properly, make sure not to overcook or undercook the eggplant!), and is surprisingly easy to make. Goes great with a bowl of rice.
Active Time: 25 min
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients
> Chinese eggplant (2 large)
> ground pork (1/4 lb)
> garlic (5 cloves, minced)
> ginger (10g, minced)
> red pickled pepper (30g, finely chopped)
> scallions (a few stalks, chopped)
> neutral oil
> white vinegar (1 tsp)
> potato starch (1 tsp)
Sauce mixture:
> salt (1g)
> MSG (1g)
> sugar (20g)
> soy sauce (10g)
> vinegar (6g)
> water (30g)
> potato starch (3g)
Instructions
1. Wash the eggplant and slice into moderate sized "wedges". Add a touch of white vinegar and potato starch, and mix to coat.
2. Steam the eggplant for about ~15m, or until fully cooked through. Remove from steamer and set aside.
3. In the meantime, prepare the sauce mixture by mixing together the salt, MSG, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, and potato starch.
4. In a wok over high heat, stir-fry ground pork for about a minute, or until it just starts to brown. Add the garlic, ginger, and peppers, and stir fry for ~30s or so, or until aromatic.
5. Add the sauce mixture, and reduce a little bit until it starts to thicken up a bit. Add the eggplant, and stir-fry for about 30s or so. Make sure the eggplant is thoroughly coated with the sauce.
6. Serve immediately and top with scallions. Enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
> Apparently, when selecting for eggplants, you should look for ones with a bit of white skin near the stem. That indicates that it's more tender.
> Exactly how you slice the eggplant isn't that important (as long as they aren't too big and cook through properly when steaming). I personally like to slice at an angle, and rotate the eggplant as I'm slicing, which results in the "wedges" that I described earlier.
> Apparently, adding white vinegar and potato to the eggplant mixture helps it retain its color better when cooked -- otherwise you'll get an unappealing gray skin like the one you see in the picture above.
> The "鱼香" in the name of the dish refers to the sauce mixture, which is noteworthy for having a substantial amount of vinegar. The same sauce mixture was traditionally used to cook fish, although it's much more commonly used in this dish and 鱼香肉丝 nowadays.