Chinese eggplants with minced pork （肉末烧茄子） and spicy garlic sauce is a humble and popular dish in Chinese kitchens. r A small amount of minced pork can significantly improve eggplants’ taste, enriching the layers of a humble eggplant stir-fry. For vegan readers, you can skip minced pork or try this eggplant with garlic sauce.
Braised eggplants are always my favorite method of making eggplants, using very basic seasonings and producing a well-balanced dish with a strong garlic aroma. There is another popular Chinese eggplant dish named “Yu Xiang Eggplants”, which is named “Chinese eggplants in spicy garlic sauce. ” It has similar ingredients and cooking methods, but that’s a more complex version. If you love this flavor or love to cook eggplants, I highly recommend you try yuxiang eggplants too.
How to make the eggplants turn soft easily
Though eggplants can be extremely delicious, they are not liked by every housewife cook as they are hard to handle and need lots of oil. I have been trying to search for ways to reduce the oil absorbed by eggplants. The final solution is to soak the eggplants in slightly salty water and let them absorb the water as much as possible. The water contained in the eggplants can help to accelerate the cooking process and make the eggplants much softer.
Eggplants are quite yummy when well cooked. The soft texture can greatly absorb the spicy garlic sauce and endow the dish with great flavor. The most common way of cooking eggplants in China includes :
Ingredients Breakdown
- Doubanjiang is also named broad bean paste, a spicy chili sauce from Sichuan cuisine, made from broad beans. It has a lovely spicy flavor that combines well with most Chinese dishes. If you don’t have doubanjiang, you can use other chili paste to replace it.
- Minced pork is used in a very small amount. We need to fry minced pork until crispy and aromatic. The aroma of the minced pork can improve the taste of the dish greatly even with a very small portion.
- Garlic, ginger, and green onion create a basic savory base for braised eggplants.
- Light soy sauce can provide a basic savory taste.
Instructions
Remove the ends of Asian eggplants and then cut them into small cubes (for the best flavor, try to cut each cube with some skin). Transfer them into a large pot filled with water, add a pinch of salt, and soak for 10 minutes. Add a weight if necessary to make sure the eggplants is well soaked. Set aside to drain completely.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok and fry the eggplants for 6-9 minutes until the eggplants become soft and withered. Transfer the eggplants out and leave the oil in.
Add marinated pork to stir-fry until aromatic and slightly golden brown . Transfer to the edges of the wok and place the doubanjiang in to fry for another 1 minute. Slow down the fire.
Add garlic, ginger and scallion onion until aromatic,
Return the eggplants along with fried minced pork, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil. Mix well. Serve with chopped green onion garnished.
What to serve with
This is a savory dish and you can match it with a light Chineses style soup like winter melon soup, lotus root soup, and even egg drop soup. Besides, I highly recommend matching it with Chinese cucumber salad and steamed rice.
Other eggplants recipe on this site
Eggplants are cooked widely in Chinese cuisine with many methods. We have lots of yummy eggplants recipes you can check.
Chinese Eggplants with Minced Pork
Ingredients
- 2 long Asian eggplants
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 1/4 cup minced pork
- 1 tsp. minced ginger
- 1/2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 3 tbsp. cooking oil ,divided
- 2 garlic cloves ,sliced
- 1 thumb ginger ,sliced
- 2 green onions ,white half and green half divided
- 1/2 tbsp. doubanjiang ,skip this if you prefer a mild taste or double for a hotter version
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
Instructions
- Remove the ends of Asian eggplants and then cut into small cubes (for the best flavor, try to cut each cubes with some skin). Transfer them into a large pot filled with water, add 1 tbsp. salt and soak for 10 minutes. Add a weight if necessary to make sure the eggplants is well soaked. Set aside to drain completely.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in wok and fry the eggplants for 6-9 minutes until the eggplants become soft and withered. Transfer eggplants out and leave the oil in.
- Add minced pork to stir-fry until aromatic and slightly golden brown. Add shaoxing wine along the edges. Transfer to the edges of the wok and place the doubanjiang in to fry for another 1 minute. Slow down the fire.
- Add garlic, ginger and scallion onion until aroma.
- Return the eggplants along with fried minced pork, soy sauce, sugar, salt and sesame oil. Mix well.
- Garnish chopped green onion (green parts) and serve with steamed rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The flavor was great, but there wasn’t much sauce following the recipe. The picture looked like there was quite a bit.
Carmen,
If you want it a little bit saucy, slightly add more oil.
It worked out really nicely for me. I added some Korean kojukaru since I didn’t have any of the Chinese hot sauce mentioned and it turned out well. Thanks for posting.
Thank you Grace for your detailed feedback!!
No mention of where the sliced or minced ginger go…unless I missed it I don’t see the step about marinating pork. Please clarify. Thank you.
The sliced ginger is used in step 4: “Add garlic, ginger and scallion onion until aroma.” and in this recipe, the pork needn’t to be marinated, stir-fry directly.
What’s the purpose of studying the eggplants
I made this tonight and it was very tasty. A nice light dinner.
Thank you Matt for the lovely feedback.
Loved it so did my husband. Only found that I needed a lot more oil as the eggplant absorbed it all in the first go.
You can add oil in the middle of the process whenever feel the oil is not enough.
I added more pork and more flavorings to the meat marinade, and took your suggestion to coat in cornstarch. Delicious! Eating over mixian noodles.
I think it would be good with the addition of some whole fermented black beans as well for a textural component since the pixian is typically more of a blended paste 🙂
Sure, Alexis. You can make it a black bean sauce flavor too.
I love this so! Have made it a few times. I would suggest though that you add a slight edit: that coating the eggplant in cornstarch extends the cook time considerably. No big deal since I love the flavor in the end, but just a suggestion ?
Lovely point!! Yes you can try to skip this step.
Looking for recipe to make like in Dim Sum Rest. It was Eggplant sliced diagonally with a ground pork mixture on top then either fried or baked with a black bean sauce??? Anything you know of like this, could not find it ion a lot of cookbooks???
Cheryl,
Sorry I can’t figure out the dish based on the description. Can you give me a photo?
Very light and tasty. I was expecting more of a sauce on it.
Can you deep fry the eggplant instead pan fry? Looks delicious. thanks….
Yes, deep frying can be used instead of pan frying, but it should not be fried for too long, otherwise the eggplant will easily lose water and become hard. The oil temperature also needs to be controlled well.
I absolutely love this dish. So quick and easy and so delicious. It’s one of my favourites. So full of flavour.
Hi, Sara
I’m delighted to hear that you love the dish! It’s wonderful that you found it quick, easy, and full of flavor. Thank you for sharing your feedback!