Spicy Stir Fried Beef with Eggplants
Minced (ground) meat is often looked upon as a second class citizen by carnivores, a throwback to a time when butchers made their mince from scraps and trimmings of beef with a generous measure of fat. It was meat for people on a budget. Times have changed thankfully, and cooks are now demanding lean, prime quality minced pork, lamb and chicken along with premium cuts of beef.
This quick week night dinner began life as a recipe for Pork and Eggplants from Adam Liaw’s “Big Pot.”. As often happens when I try recipes from a new book, the minute I left the dinner table I was annotating the page, in pencil, adjusting ingredient quantities, modifying the method and refining the recipe to better suit the way I prefer to cook and eat.
Eggplants can be tricky to handle. As well as absorbing loads of oil, they have a tendency to fall apart if even slightly overcooked. I found that sliced finger eggplants worked the best in this dish, cut into thick slices, tossed in a small amount of oil and oven roasted. The oven took care of the eggplant while I prepared the meat.
We’ve tried this dish made with both pork and beef and much to my surprise we preferred the beef.
This dish has that delicious spicy, sweet savouriness that the Chinese do so well, a perfect dish to serve with simple steamed bok choy and rice for a quick week night dinner.
Spicy Beef with Eggplants
4 finger eggplants
1 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon garlic infused oil
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely julienned
1 large red chilli, sliced
500g lean minced rump steak
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon tamari or dark soy
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons castor sugar
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoon water
2 spring onions sliced
Preheat the oven to 180C and line an oven tray with baking paper.
Cut the eggplants into 4cm thick slices. Place them in a bowl, drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil over the top then toss to coat. Lay the eggplants in a single layer on the tray and bake until golden, about 20 minutes.
While the eggplants are cooking, prepare the ginger, garlic and chilli, measure out the sauces, spices and seasonings, slice the spring onions.
When the eggplants are close to finished heat the wok, add a tablespoon of peanut oil and briefly stir fry the ginger, garlic and chilli.
Crumble the meat into the wok and stir fry until well coloured.
Add the sauces, spices, stock and the cornflour slurry. Return the wok to the boil and high simmer until the meat is in a rich thick sauce.
Stir through the cooked eggplant, garnish with sliced spring onions and serve.
Serves 3-4 with rice and vegetables.
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27 comments on “Spicy Stir Fried Beef with Eggplants”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
This sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
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I hope ysou enjoy it Simon, it’s become a dinnertime regular here.
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I personally believe that ground meat has great potential and you can make wonderful things with it because it is so versatile. I love your dish – full of flavors! It looks delicious!
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I have copied this recipe and can’t wait to make it. I love eggplant no matter how it’s cooked. And minced beef? Looking forward to it!
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It way exceeded our expectations Claudia, enjoy!
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Love this! Use minced meats a lot . . and if one does not like the many store-bought varieties it only takes a minute to make one’s own . . .well, if beef is used, is more likely to be blade or topside in my home 🙂 ! I adore aubergines but if I am short any combo of bok choi, zucchini and snowpeas would taste as good . . . actually what I am cooking for lunch in a few minutes 🙂 !
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The comments on this post have made me realize how versatile the meat component of this dish could be. Enjoy!
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Really delicious looking dish Mrs R. Nothing wrong with minced beef when used well. I am going to try a version of this with my lads too. I will cut up the eggplant really small and they will not notice…..oh no, they will not.
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I think your boys will love the meaty sauce, you could “hide” other vegies under it too…w
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Awww. That looks exactly like what I feel like for dinner, but oh, the effort!
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Go on, you can do it, it’s quick and simple if you have the ingredients to hand. It’s delicious too!
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I love eggplant (AKA aubergine), but usually cook it in Mediterranean recipes. Perhaps it is time to explore its uses in oriental-style cooking. This recipe looks fabulous, tasty and (importantly) easy to pull together. Do you have any suggestions for a non-shellfish substitution for oyster sauce? Allergies to contend with!
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I just dipped my finger in the oyster sauce and had a taste. My advice would be to use kecap manis AKA sweet soy and add some salt. The oyster sauce is a umami laden but with a sweetish edge. Good luck, I’d love to know how you go…
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Several days and a shopping trip later…tried the recipe – delicious!!! In the end, substituted a plain (i.e. non spicy/herbed) hoisin sauce for the oyster sauce – both salty and sweet. Nice one to add to the list of easy to make recipes! Love the technique for. cooking the aubergine – though I assumed it was 4mm, and not 4cm slices 😀. I always make the same mistake and have to go in search of a measuring tape to verify!
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Actually It was 4cm slices, chunky pieces. Glad it worked out well
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Very chunky! No matter…the thin slices also worked very well – they took on a golden colour and were nice and soft. I think the one non-aubergine fan in the house even liked them this way!
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My mouth was watering as I read the ingredients. I like this saucy meat dish, especially that it has eggplants, ginger and oyster sauce in it. This is a winner, if you ask me. Yum!
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Thanks Fae,
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Yes, thankfully times have changed and good quality minced meats are readily available. We have minced lamb, chicken, turkey or beef a couple of times per week and never tire of it. This one looks really good Sandra!
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I never though minced beef could taste so good Seana, it was delicious!
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Good thinking to roast the eggplants. Would love to know how you’re getting on with his new book as I know you like his Asian after Work – I’m still cooking a lot out of it.
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Nice to hear from you Nancy. Loving Adam’s Big Pot, loads of simple pan Asian inspired ideas. I can’t help tweak the recipes though
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Sandra, this sounds wonderfully flavourful! My boys don’t like eggplant, but I’m thinking that it could be easily adapted to include other veggies instead. Thanks – love these mid-week meals! 🙂
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Margot you could omit the eggplants and just serve the delicious saucy meat with any Chinese style greens, steamed or stir fried. I added tofu when we tried it with pork, that worked really well too.
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Sounds very tasty…
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Believe me, this takes minced beef to a whole new level!
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Great!
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