What Happened When I Revisited Homemade Eggplants?
I tested another recipe for stir-frying eggplants and they were delicious. After a small tweak during the second attempt, the dish was even more attractive than the first try.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
Earlier in the year, I cooked eggplants at home for the first time. Since they didn’t come out as I had hoped, I searched for another similar recipe to reference.
Inspiring Recipe
As mentioned in my previous post, the promising recipe, Chinese Eggplants With Minced Pork, was what I found to help me improve my experience with this dish. This recipe came from China Sichuan Food, a blog that I tried out for my first post about food.
First Try
After arriving to the supermarket for some eggplants, pork, and green onions, I was thrilled to find that the eggplants were 25% off, at $1.49 per pound! With the purchased groceries, I was ready to start.
Ingredients to Use
For the first attempt on this new recipe, I kept things clear-cut and just doubled all the ingredients. However, I did skip the doubanjiang, so the dish would be mild.
Steps to Prepare
Of the six steps in the instructions, I only followed Step 1, 4, and 5. Also, I added another piece in between Steps 1 and 2.
Since I didn’t see the note in Step 3 to add Shaoxing wine to the pork while cooking and didn’t think to add the minced and sliced ginger at the same time to the wok in Step 4, I marinated the pork with the minced ginger and wine before Step 2.
For Step 2, I started frying the eggplants for 9 minutes on high heat, but they weren’t soft enough. After a total of 36 minutes, the eggplants finally started to wither.
After transferring the eggplants out of the wok, I added the remaining oil in Step 3 because the wok was smoking by this time and the instructions didn’t specify the exact timing. After browning the pork and moving it to the side of the wok, I decreased the heat.
Though I followed Step 4, I added both parts of the green onions at this point, so everything would be cooked. As a result, I didn’t add any garnishes in Step 6.
Time to Eat
With many burnt pieces in the dish, I wasn’t sure if dinner was going to be ruined.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣1️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
Though the dish was visually unappealing, I discovered that the eggplant was nice and sweet. In addition, the pork had good ginger, green onion, and garlic flavors!
Second Try
With no issues with the taste of the first batch, my goal for the second one was to increase the visual attractiveness of the dish.
Ingredients to Use
Though I had only set aside 4 eggplants for this attempt, I had .625 cup of pork. With a higher proportion of meat than what was suggested by the recipe, I increased the remaining ingredients as follows:
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt
- 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (for the eggplant)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons of minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil (for the pork)
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 1/2 thumbs of ginger
- 5 green onions
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
- 1/3 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil
Steps to Prepare
As compared to the first try, I only modified Steps 1 and 2 in the second attempt.
For Step 1, I added the salt before placing the eggplant cubes in the water, since I didn’t want the salt to be concentrated on the top layer of the eggplant pieces.
Starting with Step 2, I decided to cook everything at medium heat as I didn’t want anything to burn. As for the eggplant cubes, I ended up stir-frying them for 27 minutes
Time to Eat
By cooking the eggplant at lower heat this time, I didn’t get the extra charred bits in the entire dish!
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣1️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
Though the eggplant morsels were a bit greasier this time, they were softer. Also, the aromatics provided a more balanced flavor. Most importantly, my family thought the dish was good!
The next time I make this dish, I’ll be a little more adventurous by doing the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Add some doubanjiang.
Because the instructions in this recipe didn’t include the heat setting for cooking the eggplants, I burned parts of them. What I would tell my dumber self would be the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- When something doesn’t look right, do something about it! (For this case, it would’ve been to turn down the heat.)
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the recipe, Chinese Eggplants With Minced Pork, from China Sichuan Food, a blog?
- Share your favorite doubanjiang brand?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)