I’m always looking for new recipes especially with eastern flavours as summer approaches. I don’t often cook with pork but it is very common in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese cooking. Here the aubergines are steamed which makes them much less oily than when fried, and topped with Japanese flavours such as mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil and seeds, plus the ubiquitous soy. A sprinkling of peanuts makes it crunchy. Flavours are gentle with a bite of background chilli. We ate it with asparagus with almonds and capers. Yum. Plus it’s also super easy.

Serves 4

2 aubergines
Groundnut or rapeseed oil
2 bunches of spring onions chopped into angles
2 inches of ginger peeled julienned
4 garlic cloves
2 green chillis, sliced, keep seeds if you like it hot!
500 g pork mince
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp kecap manis
1 tsp sesame oil
1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
Bunch of coriander, chopped
Handful roasted peanuts
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

First prepare and chop all the veg and set them out ready to cook.

Put all aubergines in a bowl and salt them for 30 mins or so. Then put in a steamer and steam them for 12-15 mins until soft.

Heat the oil in a large wok and add spring onions, ginger, garlic and chilli and stir fry for 5 mins. Set aside in a bowl. Add a little more oil in to the wok and add the pork mince. Stir fry for 3-5 mins until it begins to break up.

Add the mirin, kecap manis, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and a pinch of salt. Return the spring onion and garlic mixture to the pan. Cook for a further minute. Stir through half the coriander and the peanuts

Serve on top of the aubergine and scatter with sesame seeds and scatter rest of coriander.