Braised Aubergine with pork, 鱼香茄子

This recipe fits with the current zeitgeist, since burned cars kinda reminds us of braised aubergines. 

The view from our window last night. mmm burned rubber? Smells like eggplant grilling!

This recipe is from Yan-Kit So's "Chinese" book(let). 

Ingredients

675g or 1.5lb; we usually use 2 medium sized eggplants

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly

4 spring onions cut into 2" sections, white and green parts separated

250g minced pork

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or medium-dry sherry

1/2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup chicken stock

Steps

1. Cut the aubergines into 2" long and 1" wide sections and put into a colander. Sprinkle salt liberally over the pieces and let them rest for an hour. Then wash the pieces and dry.
2. In a saucepan, heat a couple of table spoons of oil and, on medium heat, fry the eggplant pieces in batches, adding more oil as needed.
3. Add some more oil to the pan and add the chopped garlic and the white scallion portion. Fry for about 10 seconds.
4. Add the pork. Working quickly with your cooking spoon, separate the mince evenly so that it doesn't cook in large chunks. Stir around quickly. When the pork is cooked it will be opaque (around 4-5 minutes)
5. Splash in the rice wine and add the cornflour and stir to coat the meat.
6. Reduce the heat slightly and then add in the soy sauce, sugar and the stock. We usually add more stock, almost double. 
7. Add the eggplant back into the pan. Lower the heat and cover the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes or until, as Yan Kit-So puts it, the eggplant is "meltingly tender".
8. Garnish with the scallion green portions.

Anda ki sabzi

Ingredients

• 10 eggs
• cumin seeds
• cream
• 1 bell pepper
• 3 onions
• 2-3 tomatoes
• turmeric
• coriander powder
• corn starch
• garam masala powder

Method

1. Boil and peel the eggs.
2. Slice the onions and the capsica in slices of about equal length.
3. Add oil and cumin seeds to the pan and heat until the cumin smells good.
4. Add onions and fry on medium heat until they start looking soft (but not brown). Then add the capsicum. Continue frying until the capsicum starts looking a bit soft.
5. Add tomatoes, a little turmeric and coriander powder. Fry for a bit.
6. Add the eggs, cut in wedges.
7. Just before serving, add cream and corn starch. Bring it to bubbling so the sauce thickens.
8. Sprinkle with garam masala. Serve with rice.

Mapo doufu

I long ago lost track of how many times we've cooked this. It's one of our absolute favourites, for sure. A classic Chinese dish, that's just so so good.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs soft of firm doufu, drained
• 1/2 lb ground pork or beef
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
• 1/2 ts roasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons Sichuan pepper corns
• 1 tbs oil
• 2 scallions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 ts ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbs chile bean paste (we actually use sambal oelek instead)
• 1 cup stock
• 1.5 ts corn starch
• 1 scallion, shredded on top

Method

Cut bean curd in cubes. Marinade the meat in 2 ts soy sauce, 2 ts rice wine and the sesame oil.

Toast the Sichuan peppers lightly in a dry pan.

Heat oil in pan until very hot. Stir-fry the meat until browned. Remove with wire strainer, and let the water sputter off. Add scallions, garlic, ginger, stir-fry a little. Then add chile paste, stir-fry for 5 seconds.

Add the stock and the remaining soy and rice wine to the pot, and bring it to a boil. Then add back the meat and the bean curd. Reduce the heat to medium and cook it for 5 minutes. Then add in the corn starch, and let the sauce thicken.

Sprinkle Sichuan peppers and the shredded scallions on top.

Mangal Kolgrill, Kista Galleria

We seem to have finally identified our favourite place to eat at Kista Galleria. It is called Mangal Kolgrill and the first dish we ate there inspired us to make a tabbouleh at home. We have gone back a couple of times and their pide (turkish pizza) is fantastic. We can speak knowledgeably having had eaten genuine pide in istanbul (one whole time, at the airport while on a layover, so we're real connoisseurs, see).

This time we tried their Mangal sampler with the bulgur salad.

They had a piece of chicken breast (very moist), two pieces of chop (probably lamb), two koftas and two other pieces that we think were beef, but honestly, everything was so delicious and well cooked that happy oblivion is fine with us. The bulgur salad was amazing, light and fresh as before. The side of bernaise sauce went unexpectedly well with all the meat. The dips in the bowl at the top were tzatziki, baba ganoush, hummus and some kind of red pepper yummy-ness. The grilled green pepper on the plate was absolutely delicious and frankly neither of us paid much attention to the bread because everything else was so good. And, of course, we finished with Ayran, which is refreshing and delicious.
Sorry, we actually forgot to take a picture before we dug in, so the plate looks a little chewed on already.

The food takes a little longer to come out than it does at other places in the food court, but from our vantage point it looked like each dish was being cooked to order and I guess this explains why their food is head and shoulders above the rest!