Szechwan Eggplant

Submitted by Chilicat

"Eggplant and ground pork in a spicy sauce. This is from "A Hundred Years of Island Cooking", an old cookbook from the Hawaiian Electric Company."

 

• Ready In: 15mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 lb eggplant (Japanese, if you can get it)
• 1 cup oil
• 1⁄4 lb ground pork (or poultry)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 3 hot red peppers, seeded and minced

directions

1. Pare eggplant and cut into 2-inch strips.
2. In a wok or skillet, heat oil to 450°F Fry eggplant until soft; remove from oil and set aside.
3. Pour out all but 1 teaspoon of the oil; fry meat for 1 minute. Stir in eggplant.
4. Combine remaining ingredients and stir into eggplant mixture; cook 1 minute.

Reviews

[Tanya S.]

One of my favs. . .I just discovered coconut oil, so I brushed the eggplant with it; baked it in the oven for 10 minutes, and added some sweet peppers and basil. I only used about 1 tablespoon coconut oil for the whole thing. . .calorie buster!!!

 

[ladyfingers]

What an interesting use of eggplant. I used less oil, but kept other ingredients the same. A nice blend of flavors. We especially liked the warmth imparted from the red peppers and ginger. Depending on your needs, this fast and easy recipe could work as a side dish or main meal. Thanks, Chilicat, for all your good recipes.

 

[amalie_dav]

Wow this is good. I used one pound of ground pork and two huge eggplants, maybe 3 1/2 lbs total, with double the sauce ingredients. Could have used even more eggplant. This is extremely oily but delicious as an occasional treat (the once a year clean out the garden eggplant fest!) Next time I might try stir-frying the eggplant or a combo of microwaving and frying. It is key that the eggplant be cooked until very soft.

 

[Ilysse]

Very yummy. I used 1 lb ground turkey and 2 home grown globe eggplants. It was very easy to make. I kept the peel on the eggplant and sprinkled with salt and let drain then rinsed off and sauted in less than 1 cup of oil. I also doubled the sauce ingredients and used 1 tsp of Japanese chili sauce rather than the red pepper. It wasn't too spicy but had just a little kick (we don't like spicy foods). The sauce was sooooo yummy and I will use it for other dishes like stir fry etc. even without the chili sauce. I did add a little corn starch to the sauce. I wasn't sure what type of vinegar to use so I just used red wine vinegar and it was great. Also used splenda rather than sugar. Even the picky 7 year old loved this and ate it in record time. We usually have to wait for her to finnish but last night she even had seconds and no waiting. Thanks for posting this great recipe. I'll be making it again especially since this was just the begining of the eggplants.

 

[Audrey W]

Fantastic, and such a simple no-brainer!