Meat!

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I love braised eggplant. It is, to me, the pinnacle of eggplant preparation. But I was always scared to try it because I guess I thought I couldn't quite get it to that perfect mushy texture. There is this Vietnamese fusion-ish place in Seattle that does it so very well.

Actually, it's not so hard. This recipe is a bit Thai-flavored, but you could easily sub in more Chinese spices. This makes enough for 2-3 if that's all you're eating. 4 if you're serving some other food.

• sesame oil
• one eggplant (ideally, i'd go for maybe three of those skinny asian eggplants, but couldn't find them this time)
• one package of tofu
• small package of pork... two little cutlets
• fish sauce... I would go ahead and fill the cooking spoon with that. I used a little less... maybe two tablespoons and while that was fine, I think a little more would have been better.
• palm or light brown sugar... about 3 tbsp
• four cloves garlic
• three thai chiles, you know, those tiny hot ones.
• green onion
• toasted sesame seeds

So, get that sesame oil hot on med-hi in a big fat wok. While the oil's heating up, cut up the eggplant into large chunks and rub the chunks with salt. It will need to sit for about 15-20 minutes while the water gets sucked out of it. Brown the tofu and then take it out. That will keep it firm when you braise the whole thing later. Wipe off the eggplant bits and throw them in. While they're cooking cut up the pork. You want these things to brown but not burn, and the oil should be hot. So pay attention and stir occasionally, kinda, while you mash up the garlic and peppers in a mortar.

Um, if you're not so comfortable with the multi-tasking, all the things can be cut up beforehand.

When the pork and eggplant looks nice and brown and the eggplant is just starting to soften, throw in the garlic and pepper mash, the fish sauce, and the palm sugar and the tofu. Then put in about 1-1 1/2 cups of water and cover for 10 minutes or so. (What you're really supposed to do is cover for a while and then uncover and reduce.. what I did was I happened to have a lid that was too small for my wok, so the water just reduced very gradually and it turned out great in the end.)

While the stuff is braising, toast some sesame seeds in another pan on med-low or med heat. And cut up a couple sprigs of green onion. I did the white parts in little slices, and then cut the green parts the long way.

When it's just about all reduced, stir in the little bits of green onion. When it's really ready, plate it, sprinkle the pretty long bits on top along with the sesame seeds.

In future, I think the pork was actually unnecessary. It didn't really add a great deal of flavor, and I thought the texture didn't quite work. If you had a lot of time, it might well be worthwhile to stew it until it was falling apart. The eggplant and tofu were great. And I'd probably add some ginger and/or thai basil.

This might also be excellent some soy and black bean sauce rather than fish sauce.