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Preparation
10 minutes
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Cooking
30 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Eggplant is a humble fruit that can be prepared into various dishes for a simple family meal to luxurious parties. Get cooking with TasteVN to learn the recipe for the beautiful fried dish called stuffed eggplant fried with tomato sauce.
Ingredients for Stuffed Eggplant with Tomato Sauce Serves 6 pieces
Eggplant 2 pieces Ground pork 150 g Minced garlic 1 tablespoon Ketchup 3 tablespoons Tomato sauce 3 tablespoons Soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon Cooking oil 500 ml Cornstarch a little Salt/pepper a little
How to Choose Fresh Ingredients
How to choose fresh eggplant
- You should choose eggplants that have shiny, even-colored skin, with the stem still fresh and tightly attached to the skin.
- When held, they feel firm and heavy, and pressing on them feels hard with a natural eggplant aroma.
- Do not choose eggplants with wrinkled skin; if they feel soft when pressed, that means they have been stored for too long and will not taste good.
- You should also avoid eggplants with uneven colors or that have black spots on the skin, as they will not have the natural sweetness when eaten.
See details: How to choose fresh, quality eggplant
How to choose fresh, delicious ground meat
- To buy fresh and delicious ground pork, you should go to the market early, because ground pork left outside for too long will easily develop a foul smell.
- You should choose ground meat that includes both lean meat and fat so that the dish will be tasty and have a certain level of richness.
- Ground pork should have the natural pink color of pork and the cloudy white color of fat, with no strange foul smell.
- You should not buy ground pork if you smell a strange foul odor, if the ground pork has a pale green color and is not dry, starting to show signs of leaking liquid.
How to prepare Stuffed Eggplant in Tomato Sauce
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Marinate the ground pork
150g of ground pork, place it in a bowl, then season with 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, then mix well and marinate for about 15 – 20 minutes for the meat to absorb the seasonings.
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How to cut eggplant into lantern shape
After buying 2 eggplants, wash them thoroughly, cut off the ends, and then cut them in half. To remove the sap, soak the eggplants in diluted salt water for about 5 minutes, then rinse with clean water and let them drain.
Trim the edges of the eggplant to form a rectangular block. Use 2 spoons to hold the sides of the rectangular block of eggplant and cut about 12 thin slices (but do not separate them) to create the lantern shape.
Do the same for the remaining eggplants.
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Stuffing meat
Use your hands to roll the thinly sliced eggplant and then stuff ground pork that has been seasoned into the gaps.
At the start and end points of the eggplant, add more ground pork to ensure better binding, then use your hands to press the ground meat into the gaps to help shape it better.
Now you have a lovely lantern made from eggplant and ground meat, repeat the same with the remaining eggplant pieces until all ingredients are used up. Then roll the eggplant lanterns in a layer of cornstarch.
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Fry the stuffed eggplant
Place a large pot or pan on the stove, add about 500ml of oil and heat it to 150 degrees Celsius. When the oil is hot, add all the stuffed eggplants and fry them until submerged in oil.
Fry for about 5 minutes, then flip the eggplants and continue frying until the stuffed eggplants are golden brown on all sides, then remove them to drain the oil.
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Cook the tomato sauce
Place a pot on the stove, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil (you can reuse the oil from frying the eggplant), when the oil is hot, add 1 tablespoon of minced garlic and sauté until fragrant.
When the garlic is fragrant, add 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce, 3 tablespoons of ketchup, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, then stir well.
Tip: If you prefer a thinner sauce, you can add a little water to the sauce.
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Completion
Place the fried stuffed eggplant on a plate, then drizzle the remaining tomato sauce over it, and it’s done.
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Final Product
The stuffed eggplant in tomato sauce, once completed, has the appearance of a beautiful lantern, with a crispy golden outside from the cornstarch coating, and a fragrant, soft interior of eggplant and pork blended with the tangy tomato sauce.
Eating this fried dish with white rice is simply delightful. Let’s head to the kitchen and make this delicious and beautiful dish right away.
See more
Just take a little time and you can have a delicious and beautiful dish of stuffed eggplant in tomato sauce, enriching the family meal menu and bringing the family closer together. Show off your cooking skills now.
*Refer to images and recipes from the YouTube channel YK kitchen
