Eggplant stuffed with ground pork and braised with Chinese garlic sauce: 鱼香茄盒.
This should be a dish from my Childhood. In the old days, stuffed eggplant is a required dish for the dinner for Chinese spring festival. It is a not daily recipe since eggplant needs lots of oil.
However, eggplants are so excellent with Chinese garlic sauce. Stir-fried eggplants in Chinese garlic sauce（鱼香茄子）is daily and common dish in my hometown.
Now this dish is a featured dish in many Sichuan style restaurants. The eggplants can be eaten directly after deep-frying. So you can choose to flavor any half of the deep-fried eggplants and serve as two flavors.
Just deep-fired eggplant boxes.
Braised version.
Firstly come to the filling. I use pork filling. Mix ground pork, half of an egg, ginger and scallion together to make the fillings. I chop ginger, scallion along with pork.
Then deal with the eggplants. Cut the eggplants into round slices with 2 cm thick. And then divide each section into two halves from the center. Do not cut off.
Stuff the filling into the eggplants.
And then add flour, water and cornstarch to make a coating. The concentration should be similar to yoghourt.
And then coat each eggplant section and begin to deep-fry.
Tips:When placing the eggplants sections down, put it vertically firstly and then lay down quickly.
Stuffed Eggplants in Garlic Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants
filling
- 1 middle size egg
- 100 g ground pork
- 1 scallion
- 1 inch root ginger , chopped
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 2 spring onions , chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 middle size egg
Coating
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ egg
Chinese Garlic Sauce
- 3 chili peppers
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon vinegar
- ½ tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cooking wine
- 3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1 scallion , finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 inch ginger , chopped
Instructions
- Cut the eggplants into 2 cm thick slices. And then divide into two halves from the center.
- Mix egg, ground pork, salt, ginger and scallion well in a large bowl and set aside.
- Place the filling into the eggplant box one by one.
- Prepare another large bowl. Add cornstarch, flour and egg to make the coating.
- Coat each eggplant box one by one.
- Heat up cooking oil in wok. Place the eggplant one by one to deep-fry until you can see the surface becomes slightly golden blown and you can see the laces on the edges of the eggplant boxes.
- In another small bowl, mix all the ingredients for Chinese garlic sauce in. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in another pan. Add Chinese garlic sauce to stir-fry until you can smell the aroma. Return the fried eggplants and mix well with the sauce.
- Transfer to serving plate and garnish some chopped spring onions
Nutrition
Bibs @ Tasteometer
Oh yes please.
Elaine Luo
Thanks for commenting, Bibs.
Kristen
Do you have the recipe for the eggplant in garlic sauce (no pork) - it is a favorite of mine. Would you just stir-fry the eggplant and use the above sauce? Do you need to salt Asian eggplant if you are sauteing it? Thanks!
Elaine Luo
Hi Kristen,
Here is the dish you are looking for: https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/yu-xiang-qie-zi-sichuan-eggplant/. This one is much easier and one of my favorite too!
Shanelle
Hi!
I am so excited to have found your website! I currently live in China, and have been wanting to learn ALL of these recipes! Thank you so much for sharing!! I wanted to ask you a question.. When you say cooking wine, what cooking wine do you use?
Elaine Luo
Hi Shanelle,
Glad to know you here in China. I hope you enjoy the time and food in this country. As for cooking wine, you will find lots of brands in Chinese market. Usually, I switch from one to another. And the only suggestion is to buy the ones with relatively higher price.
Kathleen
Do you have a recipe called Boe or Bow?
Elaine
Hi Kathleen,
Sorry I did not know what's boe or bow? Can you describe it with more details?
Deborah
Hello Elaine
Are these fresh chillies or dried chillies in this recipe?
Thank you!