Porkie Paradise

Last weekend, I was over at Shawn's place for some cooking and beer. It turned out to be a good one and I've actually posted a guest entry in his blog. There's some recipes there so check it out.

There are a couple more simple recipes from that day that I'll mention here. But before that, here's what we had for the main course:

Bak kut teh! Yummsss!

We also made a side dish of brinjals/aubergines with minced pork and a sexy chilli dipping sauce, hehe.

This brinjal dish for two is really simple, easy and quick to prepare. All you need is:

2 brinjals, sliced
Minced pork

1 onion, quartered
Garlic (if you wish)

Lee Kum Kee Spicy Garlic Egg Plant sauce packet (or any other substitute you feel like)

Boil or fry the brinjals until soft then put them aside. I'd recommend boiling for the health conscious, as brinjals are notorious for sucking up oil like a sponge. Heat up some oil in a wok or pan and saute the onions and/or garlic until fragrant before tossing in the minced meat. Keep stirring to separate the meat and avoid it clumping into a big chunk as it cooks. After maybe 3 minutes or once the meat is almost cooked, pour in the sauce from the packet. Once the sauce heats up, put in the brinjals and stir fry, coating everything with the sauce. Let it simmer for a few minutes and it is done.

Plate it and add a few sprigs of coriander or spring onions for garnish.

The chilli dip is an experimental take on something traditional. Trust me it tastes damn good! :)

Lots of ginger, very finely minced
Garlic and shallots or onions, finely chopped

Bird's eye chillies (lots of them!)

Spring onions and coriander, finely chopped (you can add more herbs, e.g. parsley, basil)

Fish sauce

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Dark soy sauce

If you have a pestle and mortar, you can pound the ginger into a paste first (or just use a blender). Put all the ingredients into a bowl and stir to mix all the flavours together. Put as much or as little of each ingredient to your taste. The sauces can be omitted altogether too, and it will still taste great with some garlic/onion oil. Let the sauce sit for a while to let all the flavours get jiggy with it. It will taste really groovy soon after.

Sexy, no? And fiery too!