Chinese Eggplant & Mince Stir Fry
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 8 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
- 550g/19.4ozs. eggplant, cut into bite sized pieces
- Oil for frying
- 1 onion, peeled and sliced
- 1 inch ginger, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 250g/8.8ozs. mince (I used pork and veal, you can use any mince)
- 8 dried chillies or 1-2 fresh*
- 2/3 cup/160ml/5.4flozs. shaoxing cooking wine
- 50g/1.7ozs sugar
- 2 tablespoons/40ml/1.4flozs dark soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Steamed rice to serve
I find dried chillies tend to be less hot and potent than fresh but that's probably because I select fresh chilli varieties for their heat while dried seem to be generically mild chillies. But of course if your dried chillies are super hot, then use to your taste.
Step 1 - Place a pot of water onto boil and once boiling, add the eggplant pieces and simmer on rapid for 5-6 minutes.
Step 2 - Meanwhile heat oil in a large frypan and fry onion and ginger on medium high heat until onion softens. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add the mince and break it up with the spoon or spatula and cook the mince through.
Step 3 - By this stage the eggplant should be ready. Drain the eggplant and add to the frypan. Add the chillies, cooking wine, sugar and dark soy sauce and stir to coat the eggplant. Cook for a few minutes until the eggplant gets saucy. Add salt to season and serve with steamed rice.