Last Updated on February 9, 2021 by Simon Fan
Steaming is one of the most frequently used cooking methods in Chinese cooking for good reasons: it cooks food quickly and retains the natural flavor, nutrition, and shape of the ingredients better than other methods, enabling you to create a flavorful and attractive dish with relatively little effort.
One vegetable that gets steam treatment frequently in Chinese kitchens is Chinese eggplant. Compared with other varieties, Chinese eggplant has more delicate skin and flesh, a milder flavor, and fewer seeds (which means less bitter taste)—all these attributes make it a perfect choice for simple and quick cooking methods like steaming.
Simply cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, steam for a few minutes, then toss in a simple sauce made with soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil, and there you have a very satisfying eggplant dish. You can even steam eggplant together with rice: add it on top of the rice in a pot or rice cooker during the last 5 to 10 minutes of cooking, when the rice has already absorbed most of the water. By the time the rice is done, the eggplant is tender and beautiful. Sounds like a perfect idea? It is!
That’s why I’m using the steaming method for my eggplant dish here as well. While I could easily go with the simple sauce mentioned above, I’ve chosen to jazz up the recipe by making a fish-fragrant sauce, as used in the famous Sichuan dishes fish-fragrant eggplant and fish-fragrant pork. As you may already know, fish-fragrant flavor (yuxiang 鱼香) is one of the signature flavors of Sichuan Cuisine. It’s so named because it uses a mix of seasonings typically associated with fish dishes. The sauce uses an ensemble of Chinese chopped salted chilies, ginger, garlic, scallions, salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, and rice wine, creating a perfect balance among sweet, salty, savory, and sour flavors.
The most critical ingredient in the sauce is chopped salted chilies (duo jiao 剁椒), so it’s worth the effort to seek them out at Chinatown markets if you want to make an authentic fish-fragrant dish. In a pinch, you can substitute dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱, chili paste with fermented fava beans), though the flavor profile of the sauce you make will be different.
You can cook Chinese eggplant with skin on. For this recipe, I peel the skin partially to create a unique look and texture.
Steamed eggplant with fish-fragrant pork
Serves 2
Ingredients
7 oz (200 g) ground pork
Marinade
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
7 oz (200 g) Chinese eggplant
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons Zhenjiang (aka Chinkiang) vinegar
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
1 teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1½ tablespoons chopped salted chilies (see Note below)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 oz (30 g) green bell peppers, cut into small dice
Directions
- Mix the pork with all the ingredients for the marinade. Let marinate for 15 minutes.
- Use a vegetable peeler to peel each eggplant lengthwise in stripes, and cut off the ends. Cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick (1.3 cm) rounds.
- Place the rounds in a steamer, and season them lightly with salt and pepper. Steam over high heat until the eggplant is soft but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Transfer them onto a serving plate.
- In a bowl, mix well all the ingredients for the sauce.
- Place a wok or skillet over medium-high heat until hot, then swirl in the oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the pork and stir-fry until just cooked through, about 1 minute. Add the chilies, ginger, garlic, and scallions, and continue to stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the well-stirred sauce, and stir and cook until the sauce has reduced and nicely coats the pork, about 1 minute. Adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Spoon the pork mixture over the eggplant rounds. Garnish with the diced green peppers and serve.
Note: Chopped salted chilies (duo jiao 剁椒) are red hot chili peppers pickled with salt, sugar, and Chinese liquor. They’re very popular in Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces where the local cuisines are known for their hot and spicy dishes.
