Serves 6
Ingredients
3 large eggplant (3 – 4 lbs.)
3T vegetable oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 1½ lbs. ground pork (OR ¾ lb. pork and either ¾ lb. chicken, finely chopped or
ground, or shrimp, deveined and finely chopped)
¼ c fish sauce
1 ½ ‐ 2T sugar
¼ – ½ t fresh ground black pepper
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 Thai bird’s eye or other chili, seeded and thinly sliced (op5onal)
Pinch of smoked salt (optional but adds a nice smoky flavor)
2T – ¼ c full fat coconut milk (optional and highly recommended)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Prick many holes in the eggplants (to allow moisture to escape) with a fork and
place on a baking sheet. Bake eggplant for 45 minutes or until soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes until
you can handle them, and then peel the skin off the eggplants, placing the flesh in a colander and letting
it sit for about ½ hour for any excess water to drip off. Place eggplant flesh in food processor and puree.
Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium‐high heat. Add the garlic, pork and chicken or shrimp if
you are using them, and cook for 2 – 3 minutes, stirring to break up any lumps and to help the meats
cook evenly. Add the fish sauce, sugar and ground pepper and stir well to distribute. Add the eggplant
and continue cooking until it is all warmed through and the meats are cooked, about 3 more minutes.
Add scallions, optional smoked salt and chiles, stir well and cook one more minute. Serve hot with
jasmine rice.
Country:
Cambodia
Notes and Instructions
Just a bit more involved than the preceding recipes and definitely worth the effort! This has a lovely, almost creamy texture from the pureed eggplant. The original recipe called for using ½ shrimp and ½ ground pork.
Since I am allergic to shrimp I used just pork, and the author states you can also use chicken for the shrimp if you like, in which case I would cut tenders into very small pieces and add with the pork. I also added a pinch of smoked salt since in Cambodia the eggplants would be charred over a flame and I wanted to capture that smoke essence that baking won’t provide.
NOTE: I recommend the naturally, humanely raised pork offered by US Wellness meats at:
http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok