The eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables. I’m not a vegan, instead, I’m a pure meat lover haha! So if you ask me what vegetables I eat the most, the answer would be definitely eggplant and tomato. I can always go for a second bowl of rice if my mum cooks any dish with eggplant for me, so as the scrambled egg with tomatoes! Oops! they are my forever favorite!

Eggplants in Sichuan cuisine are normally cooked as fish flavored eggplants  (http://ariels-love-kitchen.com/?p=394) or the fried eggplants (http://ariels-love-kitchen.com/?p=205). But today, I’m going to make the roasted version with Sichuan style filling.

Regarding to the filling, I say it is a Sichuan style filling because I used the chili soy bean paste which is a typical Sichuan style sauce. You can also use the sweet bean paste which make the filling more like a Peking style. The main ingredient for the filling is the beef mince, other than that, you can choose any vegetables depending on your preferences. I used carrots slices and baby snow beans. This filling can also be used as a sauce for noodle or fry rice.

Eggplant box

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (cut in half)

50g Spring onion chunks

For the filling

• 500g beef mince
• 4 sections of garlics (cut into small chunks)
• 250g baby snow beans
• 100g carrot slices
• 2 tbs Mirin
• 2 tbs chilli soy bean paste
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar

Instructions:

1. Cut the eggplant into half-half, put both half into the oven. 190 degrees for 20 minutes.
2. In the mean time, heating some oil in a fry pan.
3. Add the beef mince, keep frying until the blood being steamed out
4. Add garlic chunks
5. Add chilli soy bean paste, mixed well
6. Add all the vegetables (snow beans and carrots in my case), mixed together
7. Add Mirin, oyster sauce, and vinegar, mixed well
8. Taste the mixture first, and adjust the taste based on your preference.
9. Take out the eggplant, use a spoon and hollowing out the eggplant meat (you can cut the eggplant meat into small chunks and add to the filling sauce).
10. Put the filling sauce into the eggplant
11. Roast the eggplant for another 5 minutes
12. Take the eggplant out and topping with some spring onion chunks

And the remaining filling sauce can be stored and used as a sauce for noodle and fry rice. I made the fry rice for dinner using this sauce, and that was awesome!