Eggplant has to be one of my favourite vegetables. While I mostly cook eggplant in Italian dishes (such as Eggplant Parmesan, Grilled Eggplant, or Roasted Eggplant Salad), I have been more open to cooking it with Asian flavours. As opposed to regular eggplant, I use the long thin Japanese eggplants in this recipe since they don’t have a bitter flavour from their skins. To avoid them from soaking up too much oil, I fry them on high heat, super quickly so that the texture of the eggplant stays perfect. While it may not be Italian, this Spicy Eggplant Stir-Fry is a winner in my books!
Servings: 3-4
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons oil, for frying
- 2 Japanese eggplants, cut in 1 cm-thick slices
- 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
- 1 cup ground pork
- 10 dried red chilis
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 2 scallions, for garnish
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon black bean paste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
Directions:
Begin by preparing the sauce. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add one tablespoon of oil to the pan. Once hot, add half of the eggplant to the pan and cook for 2 minutes per side or until golden brown. Flip the eggplant over and cook on the other side for another two minutes. At this point the eggplant should be softened, but not fully cooked. Remove the eggplant from the pan. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and repeat the process for the remaining eggplant and remove them from the pan once cooked.
Reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and toss in the ginger, garlic, and chili flakes. Let them cook for 1-2 minutes until the ginger and garlic begin to turn golden brown. Next add the ground pork and fry for 3-4 minutes until the pork is fully cooked.
Add the 10 dried chilis to the pan along with the cooking wine and let it cook for 1 minute.
Add the sauce to the pan, followed by the eggplant. Toss everything together and let it all cook together for 3-4 minutes. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
