Fish Fragrant Aubergine Pork (nothing to do with fish!)

I tried out one of Ching-he Huang's recipes from 'Chinese Food Made Easy' called 'Fish Fragrant Aubergine Pork'. Despite it not being traditional to Chinese cooking I expected the recipe to include fish sauce, or something similar. In fact, Huang explains:

'In Sichuan cooking over twenty three different flavours can be created "Yu-shinag" or "fish fragrant" is just one of these, but this dish does not actually taste "fishy". It's a way of describing the almost bouillon-taste that is derived from using good stock.'

So there you have it!

Sourcing the ingredients for this dish was straight forward, until I came to the 'chilli bean sauce'. This sauce or paste was featured prominently in 'Exploring China' where Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang visited the giant pots in which they ferment this paste, sometimes for years. I was keen to try it this dish featured it as it's star ingredient. Alas, most of the major supermarkets do not stock it. However, it can be found at Waitrose - Lee Kum Kee Chilli Bean Sauce and at any Chinese supermarket.

I really enjoyed cooking this dish and the end result was fantastic! The chilli bean sauce is VERY hot. I contacted Ching-He Huang and she said that it comes in different concentrations, so taste as you go!

Ingredients - serves 4

3 tbs groundnut oil

1 aubergine, halved lengthways and cut into 1cm/½in slices

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp grated fresh root ginger

1 red chilli, finely chopped

200g/7oz pork mince (If you don't like/can't eat pork, I have cooked this with turkey mince too and it was very nice)

1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry

2 tbsp chilli bean sauce (In the end I only used a dessert spoon of the sauce - careful!)

200ml/7fl oz hot chicken stock

2 heads pak choi or ½ Chinese cabbage, halved and sliced lengthways

1 tbsp clear rice vinegar or cider vinegar

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 spring onions, chopped

1 tbsp cornflour, mixed with 2 tbsp cold water

Using my handy ceramic grater, a god-send for ginger!

Cut lengthways and into 1cm slices

Preparation method

1.     Heat a wok until smoking and add two tablespoons of the groundnut oil, then fry the aubergine slices with a splash of water for 3-4 minutes, or until softened and golden-brown all over. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

2.     Wipe away the excess oil from the wok, reheat and add the remaining groundnut oil. Heat until smoking. Stir fry the garlic, ginger and chilli for a few seconds, then add the minced pork. Stir fry for one minute, then add the rice wine or sherry. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until browned, then add the chilli bean sauce and hot chicken stock. Return the aubergines to the wok and add the pak choi.

3.     Season, to taste, with the vinegar and sesame oil and bring to the boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through, then stir in the spring onions. Add the cornflour paste and stir until the liquid has thickened.

4.     Spoon the fragrant pork and aubergines into a serving bowl and serve immediately.

      More of the recipes from this book can be found here but there seems to be a few errors on the recipe for this dish, the amount of oil is different and it says it serves 2, whereas the book says it serves 4. I cooked it for four with rice and it was more than enough.