Ground Pork Stuffed Eggplant 肉碎釀茄子

Pork and eggplant is such a delicious combination. At times, I’m really enjoying the quarantine life for the extra time to cook, record these recipes, and to share them. 肉碎釀茄子 Ground pork stuffed eggplant is an old school Cantonese dish and it’s easier to put together than it appears. There’s a lot of different ways of how the eggplant is cut. Some people cut off a small side of the eggplant so it acts as a base and they can stuff the rest of the eggplant. This makes for bigger bites and that’s fine. Some others also include more slits between bites. The way I’ve learned this dish is by slicing the eggplant in half, and just making one slit per bite so they’re small bites. If you have the time and really enjoy this dish, try out different ways of stuffing the eggplant.

The sauce I got from this is from my mom and it’s primarily seasoned with oyster sauce. She says you can make a garlic and black bean sauce as well which can be really good. Garnishes can be simple as well. You can use green onions, cilantro, chili peppers or anything else with this that pairs well with pork or eggplant. But one thing to note is that this dish is a steamed one so the natural flavor of pork and eggplant should shine through. Since you’re cooking these two ingredients with this method, according to my parents, they say the Cantonese sense of taste and rule of thumb for simple cooking is that ginger does not pair well with pork or eggplant.

This dish is also an example of portion size with meat should come out. While the pork is part of the dish, it’s not the star of it. Think of it like the pork is seasoning the eggplant.

I think this is pretty fun to make. It’s hands on with the stuffing part, but it’s not very fussy. Once you have all your ingredients ready, it takes no time to cook as well.

RECIPE:

1 eggplant
About 2.5 oz of ground pork (1/3 cup)
2 garlic cloves
Green onions, cilantro, or peppers (garnish, optional)
Salt
Sugar
Chicken bouillon
Ground white pepper
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Corn starch
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
Water
Neutral oil

Wash the eggplant, cut off the stem and cut in half so you have two long pieces.

With a knife, slice eggplant by alternating every slice to cut through each piece. Each slice should be about 1/2 inch apart from each other. The first cut should not cut all the way through to make a pocket, followed by a second cut to separate each bite to eat.

In a small bowl, combine the ground pork, season to taste with salt, a pinch of sugar, a large pinch of chicken bouillon, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, and 1 tsp of cornstarch. Mix to combine and set aside.

In a wok or large pot, place a steaming rack and add enough water so it’s just below the top of the rack. Cover and bring this to a boil over high heat.

With a spoon, stuff each eggplant piece and gently press the pork into the the pockets. Use your hands to press the pork so it is level with the skin of the eggplant. Just for aesthetics, try not to let the pork stick out. This also helps portion control so you don’t use too much meat. Arrange them on the plate that will will steam and serve this out of.

Mince the two cloves of garlic. Place in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, add 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch in a separate bowl. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of water and mix to make a cornstarch slurry. Set aside.

Wash and finely slice the green onion and place in a bowl and set aside. You can use other garnishes such as cilantro or peppers.

When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-high so the steam remains strong. Place the plate in with the arranged stuffed eggplant. Cover and steam for about 7 minutes or until the pork is done. These are small bites, so the timing will depend on how large the stuffing is.

When the pork is cooked, remove the wok or large pot.

There will be some liquid at the bottom of the plate. It has some of the pork and eggplant stock. Pour this into a measuring cup or rice bowl. Add enough water so you have 1/2 cup of liquid.

Remove the steaming rack in the wok or large pot and place over the burner. Reduce the heat to medium. Make sure the work or pot is not wet before moving on to the next step.

Add neutral oil to coat to bottom once the wok or large pot is hot. Add the minced garlic and stir for about 30 seconds or until it starts to turn lightly golden and is fragrant.

Add the reserved pork and eggplant liquid with added water.

Season with salt to taste, 1/4 tsp of sugar, 1/4 tsp of chicken bouillon, ground white pepper, 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce. Bring this to a boil. Taste and adjust seasoning.

With the reserved cornstarch slurry, give this a quick mix in the bowl and slowly drizzle as needed to thicken the liquid to make a sauce. Bring this back to a gently boil.

Add your thinly sliced green onions, cilantro, or peppers as the garnish into the sauce. Mix and immediately plate. Since they are thinly sliced, they will cook almost immediately from the heat of the stock.

Serve and enjoy!