| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 35 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 15 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar
- 2 teaspoons plum sauce
- 4 Chinese eggplants (about 1 pound), stems removed
- Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 4 dried whole chile peppers
- 2 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
- 1/4 pound ground pork
- Chopped cilantro leaves or sliced green onions
Instructions
- Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl; mix well.
- With a vegetable peeler, remove 1-inch strips of the eggplant skin, leaving a 1-inch strip of skin in between. Cut the eggplant into fourths lengthwise, then cut each section crosswise into 3-inch pieces.
- Pour enough oil into a 2-quart saucepan to fill 3 inches. Heat over medium heat to 350 degrees F. Deep-fry the eggplant batches until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels.
- Place wok over a high heat until hot. Add 1 tablespoon of deep-frying oil and swirl to coat the sides. Add the garlic, ginger, dried chiles and green onion; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add ground meat and cook, breaking up pieces with back of a spoon, until brown and crumbly. Add the sauce and bring to a simmer. Add the cooked eggplant and stir to coat. Scoop onto a warm serving platter. Serve, garnished with cilantro or green onions.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 167 |
| Total Fat | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 14 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 7 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Cholesterol | 21 mg |
| Sodium | 336 mg |
Reviews
I cook most anything but Asian, I leave that to the experts. This dish is one I DO make, however; and it is so easy and authentic tasting. I often leave out the meat to keep it totally vegetarian and serve it as a side veggie dish. Definitely use the tiny eggplants for this one, no seeds, and very tender.
I omitted the plum sauce and did not deep fry eggplant. I stir-fried it. Delicious with much less oil. Used rice vinegar — did not have black.
this was perfect! i didn’t deep fry the eggplant first, i just cooked it in the sauce in the owk, with a cover which steamed the eggplant and made it nice and soft in no time! i had the best chinese eggplant the other day at joe’s shanghai in chinatown nyc. and i really wanted to recreate it without the pork! it is really great without the pork if your vegetarian or just don’t want meat in it.
This is fabulously good! You could put the sauce on anything and it woudl be great.
I made this exactly to directions but was a little dissapointed in the outcome. I didn’t care for the “sweet” background from the plum sauce, I have had this dish many times in Chinese Restaurants and have made it myself many times and it never had a sweetness nor did it ever call for plum sauce. It should have been stated that the chilies need to be chopped or at least cut up. As a result there was no heat to this dish with the whole chilies. I will try this recipe again with my own changes.
I had to try this recipe even though I was missing a lot of the ingredients because it just looked so good. I didn’t have black vinegar, pork, plum sauce, and Chinese eggplant. I replaced Chinese eggplant with regular eggplant, black vinegar with rice vinegar, pork with chicken breast, and plum sauce with sweet and sour sauce. Despite the substituted ingredients, this dish came out very good. I served it with rice. I will try with the right ingredients without the meat next time.
This dish was excellent!! I made it with very thing strips of pork tenderloin & added waterchestnuts,yum.
We all enjoyed this recipe. Living close to San Francisco, we’re quite spoiled with excellent Chinese food and this recipe makes the grade.