Chinese pork belly with eggplant and pak choi

A delicious Chinese treat that will bring a smile to your face!

Delicious fatty pork, browned eggplant, a thick tasty sauce that covers everything. Add some steaming hot rice and you are ready for a Chinese feast!

Eggplant, also called aubergine, has a surprising meaty quality. So whenever you feel like skipping meat once in a while, eggplant is the perfect alternative. Or just go for double trouble and use eggplant in combination with meat like in this recipe.

Pork belly is a traditional staple in different Asian kitchens. Itโ€™s nice and fatty, maybe even too fatty for some people. You can substitute it easily with minced pork if you donโ€™t like that much fat in your food.

Delicious pork belly and soft eggplant in a creamy slightly spicy sauce

 

(For 2 people looking for some delicious Chinese food)

Ingredients
  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 pak choi
  • 3 spring onions
  • 1 red hot chili pepper
  • 300g pork belly
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 200ml chicken stock
  • 4 tablespoons chili sauce
  • 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons dry sherry
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
Do some prepping

First, halve the eggplant lengthwise, then cut into slices (about 1cm thick). Finely dice the garlic. Cut the pak choi into very thin slices, the green leaves as well as the white stem. Slice the spring onions and chili pepper at an angle into thin rings. Dice the pork belly into 1 cm cubes.

Fry up a delicious Chinese dish

Put a skillet with high rim onto high heat. Add the oil to the skillet and fry the eggplant slices until golden brown on all sides. Transfer cooked eggplant to a plate.

Place skillet on high heat again, add the pork belly cubes, diced garlic, ginger and chili pepper. Stir fry for about 5 minutes until the pork belly browns and gets crunchy on the edges.

Add the chicken stock as well as chili sauce and bring to the boil. Insert the sliced pak choi and the cooked eggplant including all their juices. Add rice vinegar, dry sherry and sesame oil. Stir to combine and let simmer for another 3 minutes.

In the meantime combine the tablespoon cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water into a paste. Add the starch paste to the skillet, insert sliced spring onions and stir until the sauce of your dish thickens.

Serve your delicious pork belly with some steaming white rice and dig in!

Let me know in the comments what you think of the recipe! Do you love eggplant as much as I do? Have you ever had real Chinese eggplant with pork and think this recipe is missing a key ingredient? Leave your comment and help to make this even better!

 

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7 Comments

  1. Davedunn84
    September 24, 2020
    Reply

    What do you mean when you say chili sauce? There many different kinds. Some are sweet, some are tarte and some are hot. I doubt you are referring to my Aunt Peg’s chile sauce, that’s been a family staple since prior to confederation. You have to be more specific

    • johnny
      September 24, 2020
      Reply

      Hey Dave, well it pretty depends on much heat you can take. You can go for store bought “relaxed” mainly tomato based chili sauce. Or you go “all in” Aunt Peg’s sauce. I’d suggest your go for the family recipe! ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Paul
    October 26, 2020
    Reply

    Can I add Tofu and zucchini?
    I don’t have pak choi.
    I have some leftover chili sauce from
    the Vietnamese Restaurant.

    • johnny
      October 27, 2020
      Reply

      Of course! I personally never take recipes too literally. If you miss one ingredient, just switch it with another one. Especially when it comes to vegetables.
      Let me know how it turned out ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Paul
    October 28, 2020
    Reply

    It turned out good.
    I used Shoxing wine because I
    don’t have Sherry.
    Next time I might try it with Ground Pork
    or Ground Chicken.

  4. May 7, 2021
    Reply

    After an impulse trip to H Mart, I discovered I had all the ingredients for this. I added a cup of kimchi just for fun, and the result was wonderfully delicious. And, I assumed that chili sauce meant sriiracha.

    • johnny
      May 10, 2021
      Reply

      Hi Robert,
      kimchi always sounds like a good idea! Glad to hear that it turned out well! ๐Ÿ™‚ For the chili sauce: I have tried literally all kinds of chili sauces – from spicy barbecue, to sriracha to smokey chipotle sauce. If you live on the sweeter side of life, you could probably even use sweet chili for this. It’s more about personal taste really.
      Cheers!
      Johnny

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