Roasted Vietnamese Eggplant with Pork and Prawns

More Asian cooking at our house last night.

Well, I did buy a whole bag of limes!

Mr Moo has been asking me to make Vietnamese forever, so he was extremely happy that I had discovered this recipe torn from a magazine a while back. It is reminiscent of a meal we ate in a tiny
hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Hanoi - forever ago.



Roasted Vietnamese Eggplant with Pork and Prawns
(serves 4-6)

• 2 long thai eggplants or 1 small european eggplant (sliced)
• 1 tables. vegetable oil
• 250 grams pork mince
• 150 grams green prawns (peeled, deveined and cut into 4 pieces)
• 3 tables. garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1 tables. grated fresh ginger
• 2 shallots (sliced)
• 2 tables mint leaves
• 2 tables. coriander leaves

for the dressing:
• 1 red chilli (diced)
• 2 shallots (sliced)
• 3 tables. fish sauce
• 4 tables. lime juice
• 1 tables. palm sugar (shaved/grated)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Lay the sliced eggplant on a baking tray with some oil and roast for about 15 minutes until soft. Leave to cool and then dice the eggplant and set aside. Mix all of the ingredients for the dressing together and set aside. Heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic, ginger and shallots to the pan, fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the pork and stir fry for 3 minutes, then add the prawns and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until the prawns are cooked. Remove from the heat and stir through the eggplant, mint and coriander. Stir through the dressing and transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

We served this with jasmine rice.

As for the kids, I had defrosted some homemade chicken soup for their dinner.

Although they happily tasted our dinner and liked it.