Braised Eggplant with Mince (肉碎焖茄子)

Have not cooked eggplant with mince for quite awhile. This is my style of 鱼香茄子, fish-flavoured eggplant, but I used dried shrimp instead of salted fish tonight. I was lazy to look for the recipe so cooked it with things available in the fridge. I could eat more than one big bowl of steamed rice with it if I do not have to watch my waist line. By the way, 鱼香茄子 is one of the popular dishes served in many Chinese restaurants.

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

1 eggplant (about 30cm in length), chopped

2-3 tbsp mince (I used pork)

¼ cup cooking oil

1 tsbp dried shrimp, rinsed

1-2 tsp belacan (shrimp paste)

1 red chili, sliced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 slices ginger, minced

2 bulbs shallot, minced

1 tsp light soy sauce

¼ cup water

Few drop of sesame oil

Salt to taste

Chopped shallot for garnish (optional)

Methods:

1. Heat cooking oil in a wok. Add in eggplant and fry for 1-2 minutes or until the white part browned slightly. Remove from wok, set aside for later use. I lined plate with paper towel for absorbing oil.
2. Keep about 1 tbsp of oil in the wok, fry dried shrimp until golden brown, dish out and set aside.
3. Use the same wok, stir in belacan, chili, garlic, shallot and ginger. Saute until lightly browned or fragrant.
4. Stir in fried eggplant, and in soy sauce. Cook until the liquid has reduced, then add in water.
5. Bring to boil, add salt to taste. Let it simmer over low heat until all water has reduced. Add in sesame oil, mix well and dish out.
6. Sprinkle fried dried shrimps and chopped shallot over the dish.

• For spicy version, add 1 tbsp chili paste in step 3 above. I purposely left this out as we had spicy sambal pasta for lunch and did not want something too spicy for dinner.