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
This recipe is amazing!!! I’m living in England now and ordering this dish from Chinese restaurants is really expensive. So yesterday I was craving this dish like crazy and I found this recipe! The next day I went to get almost all of the ingredients needed from Tesco except Sesame Oil and Chinese cooking wine. This dish tasted soooooo good, even without sesame oil and the wine!! I added a tablespoon of Dobanjiang 豆瓣酱 and I think Dobanjiang is super important for this dish. If you can’t eat spicy food, maybe you can just add 1 teaspoon of it. I must try to cook this dish again with sesame oil and cooking wine the next time.
Nice to hear the feedback. Liew. I am so happy that you love it.
That was cheap, easy and delicious. Thanks for the recipes! 🙂
Thanks Rohan, wish you have a good cooking time!
Thanks for the recipe! Is it possible to leave out the Chinese cooking wine and also use non Chinese eggplants?
yes, Nat. It is ok to skip Chinese cooking wine.
I cooked this for my family last night and they loved it. However, my eggplant turned brown; not the lovely purple like yours. HOW DId you keep the purple color?
Hi Nk,
You will need more oil. The purple skin should be evenly coated with oil to avoid meeting the air and oxidizing reaction.
This recipe is fantastic, I love it. I ate this dish many times while I was in China and have used your recipe twice. I really enjoy it, thank you!
Thanks Melissa. I am so happy to hear the lovely comment.
this sounds super,what would be the recipe for serving 12?
It should be great for 2 people.
Great recipe! Going to try it tonight! I prefer less oil recipes, at most time eggplants require a lot of oil! It seems like your dish doesn’t need so much oil which is great!
You can cook eggplants with less oil, there is no problem. The only thing needed is longer cooking time. Happy cooking!
Thx Elaine for your reply! I made Steamed Eggplants recently as well, it was delicious!
I can not buy dobanjiang and chinese cooking wine in Norway, anything I can use instead??
You can skip Chinese cooking wine and add some fresh chili peppers to bring this dish a light spicy taste.
Thank you for this! Just made it now 🙂 the only I felt was missing in my dish was pepper on the beef but hey to each is own.. Also I think I put a bit too much oil. Other wise great guide for this dish!
Hi Darren,
I agree it is a oily dish. Eggplants usually need more oil than other vegetable. Oil can help to bring the eggplant a meat like soft texture. I will try to develop methods of reducing the oil absorbed during the cooking process. Thanks for your suggestion.
I substituted ground beef for the pork and cubed ambercup squash for the eggplant. I also added 1tsp of sichuan peppercorns along with the soy and oil at the end. It was an amazing dish. Your blog is wonderful.
Thanks Vigo for your lovely information. I usually do not use Sichuan peppercorn in eggplants but it sounds a lovely idea. Will try next time.