Garlic Eggplant - 魚香茄子

Sorry the pic isn't more professional.

I finally mastered a new restaurant style dish! And its really good too cuz it's spicy. I used to use Lee Kum Kee black bean sauce. But I spent 15 minutes browsing Ranch 99 the other day and finally found the Kim Lan sauce. Kim Lan is a very good brand because most of their food are made from simple ingredients without weird additives that the other companies have. And it's still all made in Taiwan.

Allergen Info: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free
Prep Time: 15-30 minute

Ingredients
1 long Chinese eggplant
1 small red bell pepper
0.25 lb or less of ground pork
1 Tbsp KimLan spicy black bean sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine
1 tsp black vinegar
dash of gluten free soy sauce
dash of sugar
3 Tbsp water

Instructions

• Cut eggplants in a roll-cut style.
  
• Slice the red bell peppers
  
• Fill a quart sized pot half way with oil. Put the eggplants in when the oil is very hot. Be careful as it may splatter (due to water in eggplant). Take it out when the eggplant turns bright purple, about 1 minute.
  
• Heat up pan with some oil and put in garlic and ginger when it's hot.
  
• Add ground pork, then the bean paste. Stir fry.
  
• Add eggplant when the pork is almost done and add all the other spices. Stir it together.
  
• Add green onions when you're ready to take it out. Add a bit of corn starch + water to make sauce before you take it out.
  
  

Tips

• Make sure that the oil you're frying the eggplant in is HOT. The partner told that Alton Brown says that when it's hot, then it'll just seal in the moisture on the outside. The eggplant won't soak up all that oil. I made that mistake on the first try and the whole thing was too greasy.
  
• You may want to mix all the spices together first and then just dump it in. Since the eggplant is already cooked you don't want to cook it so much it becomes limpy.
  
• The KimLan sauce is already salty so you have to add salt to taste. The sauce is very spicy!
  
• For presentation, you can save a bit of the green onion and put them on top after you've plated the dish.
  
• The original recipe called for 1 Tbsp of black bean paste but the Kim Lan brand's paste is very spicy so I cut it down. You can increase it if you buy another brand.
  

Strawberry Jam

We made strawberry jam today. It's a combination of May 2011 Chiao Hu book and Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) Strawberry Jam recipe.

Ingredients
1 lb of strawberry
1 lime
1-2 cups of rock candy

Instructions
1. Chop the strawberry into small pieces. I think they should be as small as you like, but remember that they will shrink as you cook them.
2. Combine strawberries, lime juice and rock candy into pot.
3. Boil under medium low heat for 40 minutes.
4. Put a plate into the freezer. To see if the jam is done, pour a bit of cooked juice onto plate. Return onto freezer for a minute. Take it out and run finger through it. If the liquid doesn't try to run back together, then it's done.