Spicy Chinese Eggplant and Minced Pork Stir-fry, Cantonese style
家常粵式魚香茄子
Eggplant is my No. 1 favourite vegetable of all. I posted this dish one night and got my friends’ interest. They were curious about how I make this famous dish. This Chinese eggplant stir-fry is one of the most famous Szechuan dishes. Though it’s called ‘fish flavour/魚香’, there is actually no fish in the dish in Szechuan cuisine. Cantonese recreated it by adding a little preserved salty fish in seasoning, so its ‘fish flavour’ really comes from real fish. Since it’s so popular and so easy to make, one thousand families would have one thousand ways to cook it. My homecooking version is an even more flavourful version, with preserved fish, dried shrimp, and Cantonese sausage for seasoning the eggplant. These ingredients create deeper and richer ‘fish flavour’. All these dried or preserved food are most Cantonese’s kitchen essential. I can’t imagine not storing some of them in my fridge.
Ingredients –
- Eggplant, 2, about 500g
- Ground pork, 200g, I use fatter pork in this recipe, with equal portions of fat and lean, you could use sliced pork belly as well
- Cantonese sausage, 1, sometimes it’s named lap cheongChinese sausage in some of the Asian grocery store, typical Cantonese sausage is a type of dry and sweet pork sausage
- Preserved salty fish, 10g. I have some tasty dried anchovies. You could use any flavourful dried fish or preserved salty fish
- Small dried shrimp, 10g
- Thai red chili, 5, optional
- Garlic, 5 cloves
- Ginger, 15g
- Douban sauce, or named broad bean chili sauce, 2tbsp
- Light soy sauce, 1tbsp
- Sugar, 1tsp
- Cantonese rice wine, 1/2 cup, or any Chinese cooking wine
- Green onion, 1 stalk
How to do –
1. Let’s deal with the eggplants first, I have mentioned this method quite a few times in my previous eggplant recipes. Eggplants cut into thick chunks, put them in a big bowl, sprinkle 2tbsp of salt on, shake and mix evenly, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes; if you are not in a hurry, you could then mix them again, wait for 5-10 more minutes; wash off the salt in runny water, then squeeze the liquid out of the eggplants; this sweating process can retain the purple colour of eggplant after cooking as much as possible; eggplants would be cooked thoroughly quickly; they wouldn’t absorb too much oil; there’s no need to deep-fry the eggplant;
For details, read Two Methods to Keep Eggplant from Turning Brown;
2. Ginger and garlic finely chopped; chili roughly chopped; wipe the sausage with kitchen towel, then thinly sliced; dried fish and shrimp wash roughly in running water, you could also give them a rough chop;
3. Heat 2tbsp of oil in hot wok, stir-fry the ground pork in medium high heat till golden;
4. Put in ginger, garlic, chili, sausage, dried fish and shrimps, stir-fry till fragrant;
5. Put in eggplant, flip the wok and stir well;
6. Season them with 2tbsp of Douban sauce, 1tsp of sugar and half cup of rice wine, stir-well, then pour in half cup of water, lid on and cook in high heat for 2 to 3 minutes;
7. Have a taste and adjust with a little more sugar or soy sauce. Cantonese sausage, dried fish and shrimp are savoury already; sprinkle some chopped green onion then serve. A pinch of toasted sesame seeds or a drizzle of sesame oil would be even better. Serve with hot steamed rice.
用料
- 茄子 2根，约500克
- 肉沫 200克
- 广式腊肠 1根
- 鱼干/咸鱼 10克
- 虾米 10克
- 小辣椒 5粒（选用）
- 蒜 5瓣
- 姜 15克
- 豆瓣酱 2汤匙
- 生抽 1汤匙
- 糖 1茶匙
- 广东米酒 半量杯
- 葱 1根
做法
- 不吃辣的朋友可以少放或不放辣椒；肉沫我选了肥一点的，用一点五花肉也可以；咸鱼我用的是小咸鱼干。之前写过一个咸鱼茄子煲的菜谱，用的是梅香咸鱼；
- 先来简单处理一下茄子。茄子切条，撒1汤匙盐，拌匀，放一边等待出水，大约5-10分钟，时间充裕的话可以再拌一下，再等10分钟；用水把表面盐洗掉，挤干水。这样处理过的茄子炒出来颜色好看些、快熟，也不会很吸油；详细做法之前也特别写过一篇，可以翻以前的菜谱看看；
- 姜蒜切末；辣椒切粒；腊肠用厨房纸擦一下，切片；咸鱼和虾米用水冲洗一下；
- 热锅放2汤匙油，油热放肉沫，中大火煸至金黄出油；
- 放入姜蒜、辣椒、腊肠、鱼干、虾米，炒香；
- 放入茄子，颠锅炒均匀；
- 放入豆瓣酱、糖、米酒、半量杯水，翻炒均匀，盖上锅盖大火煮3分钟。腊肠、虾米和咸鱼都有咸味，先不放盐；
- 尝味，适当放盐或糖调味，撒上葱段，即可上菜；撒点炒芝麻更香。
