red cooked eggplant

[James427]

made this up last night on the memory of a smoked eggplant and pork dish i used to get at a vietnamese restaurant (now closed).  it turned out very well, although i used chinese style cooking.

2 small eggplants
couple of zucchini (could substitute other veggie)
pork sung
5 spice
chinese mustard powder
soy sauce (preferably from mainland- not that weak stuff you see in restaurants)
hoisin sauce
yogurt


slice eggplants lengthwise in half and halving so have long triangle shaped slices.  take a big pan (i use an 8 1/2 qt) heat olive oil in pan dry roast the eggplant until it gets a little translucent.  mix 2 tablespoons soysauce with 4 tablespoons water and toss into the pan.  sprinkle the 5 spice powder and mustard powder over the eggplant.  cover and braise on low for however long you want (15 minutes?)  this is the chinese 'red cooked' style.  if it gets dry, add more water.   chop the zucchini into wheels.

sprinkle some pork sung over the eggplant.  mix water with hoisin, maybe 1/4 cup of half and half and drizzle on eggplant.  add a couple of tablespoons of yogurt and mix everything.  

dump on zucchini, cover and steam just long to barely soften the zucchini.  

you want the contrasting textures of fresh zucchini and the cooked eggplant.  

serve with steamed rice, and very important, dump a ton of vietnamese hot sauce on the top.  enough to make your ears sweat.    yum.  

[nadiag]

Now you really got me with this one - I have to admit that eggplant was never among my favorites until some years ago I tried the Chinese eggplant sautee at a nice Chinese restaurant. From then on eggplant recipes are something I always look forward to.

I guess I will go to some specialized stores to find some of the Asian products like the mustard powder, pork sung and 5 spice. I think they also put pork sung in the sauteed eggplant, even though I am not sure what kind of pork this is, I only know it is fried. As for the hoisin sauce, I have this at home already so at least I am safe with this one.

Will let you know if I can find the products. Also I will put this under the vietnamese child forum. Thanks for sharing!

[James427]

you could probably do without the mustard.  5 spice you could make if you had to.  the chinese soy sauce i like is a fermented mushroom sauce that is very thick.  

these days i make most dishes with tofu instead of rice.  this one i wanted the rice to mix in with the eggplant (which sort of turns into a sauce).

i only used pork sung because it was the only pork i had.  if i had some pork meat, i would made a pork flavored sauce with brussel sprouts.  

[nadiag]

Thanks, that makes it a bit easier.
I do have a mushroom soy sauce at home that I like, even though it is not as thick as you describe.
Will go shopping these days after the floods and the rain stop.

[nadiag]

I got the 5 spices and the chinese mustard finally!!! Can't wait to cook this. Will take pictures of it and document it here...

[James427]

very exciting!  i should have taken some pics of mine.

[nadiag]

You can always add photos later when you cook them again by simply editing the relevant post (Nabble always you to do this at all times for your own posts, which is great).

[nadiag]

So I did cook this one. I loved the sauce up to the moment when I had to add the zucchini, because they made the sauce a bit watery and spoiled the effect. I would probably steam the zucchini separately and then add them to the dish next time. Also I added some fried rice noodles on top, it worked out nicely. The photo I took is not that great so I won't include it.

[James427]

you want to steam the zucchini only a little bit- if it got watery it was overcooked.  they should still be firm but not quite crunchy.  you can steam them separately, but part of the charm is cooking all in one pot.

i have a new recipie to write up...