Eggplant with Char Siu Meat and Pasta

The sweet plum like sauce added to the ground meat and the cooked eggplant gives this dish a Chinese style flavour.

The meat is 50:50 ground pork and beef and was browned in the pan with onions and garlic and a freshly harvested chili. The chopped long thin eggplant went in with some seasoning and veg stock paste.

I gave it a try and thought BORING. The eggplant itself is not a flavour bomb, the chili was mild and the meat ok.

I pulled out my drawer with all kinds of vinegars, oils, sauces and spices and stared over the tops of them. A jar from the Chinese aisle caught my eye. Char Siu Sauce.

A couple of teaspoons of this sauce and a sprinkle of 5spice seasoning was all I needed to give the dish a charakter.

I cooked some short pasta and chopped fresh coriander.

Ingredients:

250 g ground pork and beef, 1 tbsp oil, 1 yellow onion, 2 green onions, 3 garlic cloves, red chili

5 long small eggplants, halved and cut in slices

Salt, pepper, 2 tsp veg stock paste, 200 ml water

1/2 tsp 5spice seasoning, 3 tsp Char Siu Sauce

100 g short pasta

Fresh coriander