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Stewed eggplant with minced meat seems to be quite simple to make. To be honest, it is not difficult. However, how to make the eggplant delicious and how to control the oil absorbed by the eggplant still requires certain skills. I'm not very talented, so let's take a look at how I make this Stewed Eggplant with Minced Pork!
Recipe for minced eggplant stew:
[Main ingredients]: 510 grams of eggplant and 200 grams of pork belly.
[Ingredients]: 12 grams of dried shiitake mushrooms, 5 cloves of garlic, 15 grams of ginger, and 5 green onions.
[Seasoning]: 1g edible salt, 2g white sugar, 15g light soy sauce, 3g dark soy sauce, 10g oyster sauce, 20g Pixian bean paste, 30g cooking wine, 10g cooking oil, 50g water starch, 30g dry starch.
[Preparation]:
1. Many things can be very contradictory, such as the minced meat in minced meat and eggplant stew. If you use pork belly with fat, it will undoubtedly be more fragrant, but this fat will bring a certain greasy taste, so whether to use pork belly or all lean meat for this dish depends on your choice. I didn’t even have to think about it, I just used pork belly that was 3 fat and 7 lean. Meat must be cleaned before cutting, and the impurities and blood on the surface should be washed away. Generally, cold water can be used in summer, but in winter, the fat on the meat will solidify. Washing with cold water is equivalent to washing in vain. Therefore, when the temperature is low, wash with warm water to clean it.
2. After cleaning the pork belly, you can change the knife. First cut the pork belly into thin slices, then into thin strips, and then into smaller dices. The smaller you cut it, the easier it will be for us to mince it into minced meat. Cut the pork belly into dices and then chop it into minced meat. You don't need to chop it too small. It needs to be a little grainy so that it has a chewy texture. The size of the grains is about the size of mung beans .
3. Use a knife to break up the garlic and then cut it into minced garlic. To be honest, every time I pat the garlic, I wish I would break the knife so that I can change to a sharper knife. But nothing happens after I pat the garlic for many years. It seems that this brand of knives is quite reliable. Peel and clean the ginger, first slice it, then shred it, and finally cut it into minced ginger. Cut the scallions into chopped green onions. When cutting, put the white scallions and the minced ginger together, and let go of the green scallions. Cut the millet pepper into small rings. Millet pepper is used to add spiciness and color. If you don't like spicy food, you can use non-spicy red pepper instead. Soak the dried mushrooms 1 hour in advance, then cut into dices after soaking.
4. We can prepare the seasonings in advance. In a bowl, add 3 grams of edible salt, 2 grams of chicken essence, 2 grams of sugar, 15 grams of light soy sauce, 3 grams of dark soy sauce, 10 grams of oyster sauce, 50 grams of water, and finally stir evenly. In this way, all the seasonings that need to be used for cooking this dish are ready. We call this bowl juice.
5. Since this is a Sichuan dish, we can add some Sichuan flavor elements to it, and Pixian Doubanjiang is a very good seasoning. Of course, you don’t have to add it if you don’t like it. The doubanjiang we buy has relatively large particles. If we want it to be more beautiful after being cooked, we can chop the doubanjiang into finer pieces.
6. This dish has a thickening step. Thickening requires water starch, so we can also prepare it in advance. Add 2 grams of starch and 50 grams of water to the bowl and stir evenly.
7. After preparing all the ingredients, let's take a look at what the protagonist is going to do today. It can be said that this is also one of the most critical steps. With today's production technology, eggplants are available all year round, but the best time to eat eggplants is after the Dragon Boat Festival. Eggplants during this period are in season. Why do we deal with the eggplant last? This is mainly because I am afraid that it will oxidize and discolor if cut too early, and I don’t want to soak it in water to isolate it from the air.
8. Remove the stems of the eggplant and wash the surface several times. If you don't like the eggplant skin, you can peel off all of it, or you can cut it in half and leave half of it. To be honest, eggplant skin is still very nutritious.
9. Cut off both ends of the eggplant, then cut the eggplant into sections of about 5 cm, and finally cut the eggplant into finger-sized strips.
10. Dip a little water with your hands, and then pop it onto the surface of the eggplant. You don’t need much, just a little bit. The main purpose of doing this is to better prepare the dry starch. Then grab a handful of dry starch and sprinkle it evenly on the surface of the eggplant. Finally, scoop the eggplant and stir it a few more times to make the surface of the eggplant more coated with starch. The purpose of powdering the eggplant is to prevent the eggplant from absorbing oil when it is too oily.
In this way, all the preliminary work is ready, and then we can start cooking on the stove.
[Cooking method]:
1. There are four methods for pre-processing eggplant in this dish. One is steaming, one is stir-frying with a little oil, one is frying with a small amount of oil, and the other is deep-frying. These three methods are Among them, deep-frying is the most delicious and fragrant method, but its biggest disadvantage is that the oil content of eggplant will be too high, making the whole dish greasy. However, we still have to find a solution. Although it cannot be 100% solved, it can at least solve it by more than 50%. For example, we put a thin layer of dry starch on the surface of the eggplant. This is one of the solutions. That's why I used the oil method today. I added more oil to the pot and raised the oil temperature to about 200 degrees over high heat.
2. If you want to prevent eggplants from absorbing too much oil when frying, the oil temperature of the eggplants must be high when they are fried. That is to say, the eggplants will not absorb a lot of oil at high oil temperatures. Keep the fire high and cook the eggplants when the oil temperature reaches about 200 degrees. Remember to keep the fire high and pour all the eggplants into the pot at once, because the oil temperature will drop after the eggplants are put in the pot. If you want to change the fire to a low temperature, the oil temperature will drop faster. Then the eggplants will become like a sponge and absorb a lot of oil. It's over. This dish is too greasy and will definitely be inedible.
3. After the eggplant is put into the pot, you can push it gently with a spoon. This will allow the eggplant to be heated more evenly and prevent the eggplant from sticking to each other. When you see that the eggplant has become soft, this process only takes about 3 minutes, you can remove the eggplant to control the oil. It can be said that the eggplant fried in this way basically absorbs no oil.
4. Pour out the oil and leave only about 10 grams of remaining oil. Because this pot has just fried eggplants, there is no need to moisten the pot. The minced meat will most likely not stick to the pot. After the minced meat is put in the pot, change the heat to medium. We try to stir out the fat in the pork belly. It doesn't matter if the minced meat is cooked a little longer, it will taste more delicious that way. When we see that the minced meat is slightly golden, we can drain most of the oil from the pot, which can reduce the greasiness of the entire dish.
5. Then pour the minced garlic, minced ginger, green onion, millet pepper, and diced mushrooms into the pot and stir-fry until fragrant. At this time, we can change to a low fire and slowly bring out the fragrance of all the ingredients. Because these ingredients are relatively small, it will be easy to burn if the fire is too big, so it is most suitable to use a low fire. If you use a low fire, the fragrance will come out in about 30 seconds. Then you can enter the seasoning step.
6. First pour the bean paste into the pot, change the heat to medium, fry out the aroma of the bean paste, and stir out the red oil in the bean paste. Only by frying these two can the doubanjiang achieve its mission. This process should take about 15 seconds at most.
7. Then add the cooking wine to remove the fishy smell and increase the aroma. Stir-fry a few times quickly to allow the alcohol in the cooking wine to evaporate and take away the meaty smell. Then pour the fried eggplant into the pot and stir-fry evenly. This only needs to be stir-fried five or six times before it is thoroughly stir-fried.
8. Then pour the prepared bowl of juice into the pot and stir-fry evenly so that all the eggplants can absorb the flavor of the meat and seasoning. This process only takes about 1 minute.
9. Because the water starch will precipitate after a certain period of time, stir it for a few times first, then pour it into the pot, stir well and serve. The casserole must be heated in advance so that the minced meat and eggplant can be kept at a certain temperature. Eating hot in this winter will make your whole body warm.
technical summary:
1. When frying the eggplant, turn on the fire all the time, so that the oil temperature can be kept high and the eggplant will not absorb a lot of oil.
2. If you don’t like it too oily, don’t use pork belly. Use all lean meat, or stir-fry the pork belly until golden and then drain the oil.
Conclusion:
It can be said that the eggplant is the most fragrant if it is over-oiled. Generally, the method in restaurants is to over-oil. As long as you master the technique, it will not feel greasy and will only taste delicious. If you cannot control the oil temperature, you can consider using a small amount of oil to fry. The effect is not much different from that of over-oiling. There are very few people on the street, and there are very few people in the supermarket. This is all caused by the epidemic. Those who are exposed to the sun are unable to go out, and those who are not exposed to the sun are hiding at home. Today is my fifth day, and victory is in sight! The eggplant with minced meat goes very well with rice. With the soup, I can finish three bowls of rice without any problem. Only when I am full can I have the strength to fight Yangyang to the end!
After reading this, I believe you have a deeper understanding of how to make minced meat and eggplant stew. Then move your little finger and like + follow! Consider it as encouragement and support for me! Thanks!
