Make It Easy and Leave Eggplants to the Restaurants?

March 25, 2023 by soLing

Given the time it took to cook batches of eggplants enough for a family, without achieving the flavor and texture available at restaurants, I was tempted to just buy this dish instead of cooking it at home in the future. However, I’ve decided to try again with a similar recipe.

Below are some links to more details, including photos:

• My Story
• Inspiring Recipe
  • First Try
    • Ingredients to Use
    • Steps to Prepare
    • Time to Eat
    • Recipe Rating
  • Second Try
    • Ingredients to Use
    • Steps to Prepare
    • Time to Eat
    • Recipe Rating
• Continuous Improvement
• Lesson for Dumber Self
• Next Step for You

My Story

As I was looking through a website that I’ve referenced before to roast a Peking chicken and steam some pork spare ribs, I found a recipe for a dish that my husband likes, so I tried it out.

Inspiring Recipe

The recipe that I attempted this time was Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce from a food blog named Pups with Chopsticks.

First Try

Even though I had the majority of the ingredients at home, I still had to buy several items. Luckily, I only had to go to one supermarket!

Ingredients to Use

I planned to make twice the amount of what was listed in the default recipe and ended up doubling the ingredients for the most part. However, the 1/2 sweet red pepper that I had resulted in an extra 1 3/4 teaspoons after it was finely chopped.

Also, I made some substitutions out of convenience as follows:

• Brown sugar instead of regular sugar
• Rice vinegar instead of Chinkiang black vinegar

Lastly, I skipped the birds eye chili since the package at the supermarket had more than I could use.

Steps to Prepare

Within all the steps in the instructions, I only made some adjustments while cooking the eggplants and making the garlic sauce.

First, to cook the eggplants, I had to divide them into three batches. For the first batch, I steamed them on high and turned the stove down to medium after taking the lid off. Along the way, I also removed the soft pieces. For the second and third batches, I maintained the process at medium heat.

As for the garlic sauce, I added both the white and green pieces of the green onions when cooking the aromatics with the pork, to keep it simple. Also, after adding the sauce into the pan, I cooked the mixture on high heat to help speed up the process.

Time to Eat

After putting the eggplants and pork on a plate, I was ready to try it.

Recipe Rating

Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:

Unfortunately, the eggplant, red pepper, and garlic weren’t as soft as I would have preferred. Also, the eggplant was missing that satisfying fried texture.

Second Try

The goal during the second attempt was to soften the eggplant, red pepper, and garlic.

Ingredients to Use

I had intended to make half of what I did during the first try, so I purchased 2 eggplants and the smallest tray of ground pork that would be enough for this and another recipe. Since I had mistakenly targeted for 1/2 a pound of pork instead of 1/2 a cup, I ended up allocating .844 pound of pork to this recipe. As a result, I increased the remaining ingredients with the exception of the eggplant, as follows:

Aromatics for the Garlic Sauce

1. 6 ounces + 2 2/3 teaspoons of sweet red pepper and onion*
2. An equivalent of 3 1/4 stalks of green onions*
3. 9 cloves of garlic

Eggplant Sauce

1. 3 ounces + 1 1/3 teaspoons of soy sauce
2. 3 ounces + 1 1/3 teaspoons of sugar
3. 3 tablespoons + 2/3 teaspoon of rice vinegar
4. 12 ounces + 4 1/2 tablespoons of cold water
5. 1 1/2 tablespoons + 1/3 teaspoon of corn starch
6. 3 tablespoons + 2/3 teaspoon of ketchup

Pork Marinade

1. 1 tablespoon + 1/8 teaspoon of oil
2. 1/2 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of corn starch
3. 3/4 teaspoon of salt
4. 1/2 tablespoon of Shaoxing cooking wine

Cooking eggplants

1. 12 ounces + 4 1/2 tablespoons of water (split between the batches)

* Because I had some sweet red pepper at home, I used that along with the original allocation of green onions. To make up for the shortage of these two items, I used onion.

Steps to Prepare

For this try, I made modifications in all sections of the instructions as noted below:

Preparing the Ingredients

For this part, I chopped the red pepper and garlic to finer pieces, in hopes that they would soften faster in the cooking process.

Cooking the Eggplant

After soaking the eggplant for 10 minutes, I had to cook it in two batches. This time, I used a skillet instead of a wok with a goal of more even cooking. Starting at the medium setting, I increased it to high after steaming the eggplants for 5 minutes and removing the lid to speed things up.

Making the Garlic Sauce

When it came to the sauce, I switched to using a wok, so it would fit everything. Starting at medium heat, I cooked the pork for 6 minutes before it was no longer pink. After adding the aromatics, I cooked them for a total of 6 minutes to ensure that the red pepper and garlic would be soft. When I got to the sauce, I switched the stove to high heat and cooked it for 10 minutes before it started to thicken only a little, but since I didn’t want to wait any longer, I just left it as it was.

Time to Eat

After everything was finally cooked, I was anxious to find out if this dish would easily slide down my throat.

Recipe Rating

Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:

I was happy that the red pepper and garlic were soft. However, though the eggplant was also soft, it needed more flavor. What saved the dish was the well-seasoned pork.

Though I won’t be using this recipe again, I will be doing the following to try and improve this type of dish:

Continuous Improvement

1. Reference a similar recipe, Chinese Eggplants With Minced Pork, from China Sichuan Food, a blog.

Since I’ve cooked this eggplant dish a couple of times without getting my preferred results and searched through many comparable recipes, I’ve learned the following that I’d like to remind my younger self of:

Lesson for Dumber Self

1. Don’t give up!

What will you do now?

Next Step for You

1. Try the recipe, Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce from a food blog named Pups with Chopsticks?
2. Share a tip for cooking this dish?
3. Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)

It’s your choice!