Cubed Eggplant and Ground Pork Stir-Fry with Spicy Fermented Bean Paste 炒辣豆瓣醬茄子豬肉丁

Usually the way I cook eggplant is by slicing it, either for Asian or Western recipes. But let's change the scene this time around by dicing the eggplant into cubes. Because of eggplant's spongy nature, once diced up, it can absorb even more sauce and seasonings, making this stir-fry a rice-killing recipe.

Cubed eggplant and ground pork stir-fry with spicy fermented bean paste 炒辣豆瓣醬茄子豬肉丁 - 

Ingredients?

• 2 eggplant (about 4 cups cubed eggplant)
• 680 grams ground pork
• 4 garlic clove
• 1 to 2 red chili
• 1 tablespoon peeled and chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or other preferred cooking oil
• Some scallion (for garnish)

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon spicy fermented bean paste 辣豆瓣醬
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

How?

Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Peel and finely chop the ginger. Destem and chop the red chilies. Destem and chop the scallion, just a small amount for garnish in the end.

Remove the stems and cube the eggplants. It doesn't really matter which variety of eggplant you use, let it be the longer Chinese eggplant or the round version, also there's no need to peel the eggplants either.

Take a non-stick pan, drizzle enough oil to coat the bottom, about 2 tablespoons for me. Add in chopped garlic, chopped ginger, and ground pork. Give it a quick mix and cook till the pork changes from red to white color.

Add in cubed eggplant and stir-fry for about 1 minute.

Mix together all the ingredients under the "sauce" section. The quality and flavor differs widely among different brands of spicy fermented bean paste. I would recommend Sichuan Pixian spicy fermented bean paste (四川郫縣豆瓣醬) if you can find any. This variety is not overly spicy and carries a dense sweet note to it.

Pour the sauce mixture to the pan and mix till evenly blended. Cook till slightly thickened.

Mix in red chilies and cook no more than 30 seconds. 

Plate and garnish with some chopped scallion.

The eggplant now acts more like a flavor holder here due to its soft spongy texture, so the main pronounce bite is actually coming from the ground pork. If you get to choose how the meat was ground, use the coarsely ground version for a fuller impact. 

By the way, don't add any more red chilies if you can't quite handle the heat. Spicy fermented bean paste alone can be deadly for some, so better taste it before pumping up the heat level. 

Extended reading:

• Eggplant and tomato stewed rice 雙茄豬肉燴飯