Another dish of the week using Thai Basil Leave(click link for more details). It can be treated as finger food or appetizer because of it's light content. You can easily get hold of Thai Basil Leave(it with purple-red flowers and fresh green foliage which offers an intense licorice aroma) in those vegetables stall in the wet market. The one selling in the Cold Storage is Sweet Basil which had a bigger leave and it's fragrant and taste will be different from Thai Basil Leave.
Raw Eggplant has a somewhat disagreeable taste, but when cooked, becomes tender and develops a rich, complex flavour and firm texture. Salting and then rinsing the sliced eggplant can also remove much of its bitterness. This is a spongy, mild-tasting vegetable that's meaty yet low in calories. You can either sever it with or without sauce dressing. It's all depend on individual taste. As for the sauce dressing, you can click on the Thai-style Basil Salad for it's sweet chilli sauce dressing.Ingredients:
1 Large Purple Eggplant(Brinjal) 茄子
50g Pork Mince
4-6 Leave Of Thai Basil Leave(九层塔), finely chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
Methods:
1. Wash and cut the eggplant into halve, then slice them length-wide thinly to about 0.5cm thick.
2. Soak it in some lightly salted water or else it will oxidize and darken in colour.
3. Marinate the pork mince with chopped basil leave, sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch and set aside.
4. Coat 2 slices of eggplant with some plain flour then sandwich it with a thin layer of basil pork mince.(do not put too much filling inside, otherwise it will not be cooked with deep-frying)
5. Continue to sandwich the pork mince with the rest of the eggplant slices then let them in the fridge to infuse the favour for about 30 minutes before deep-frying.
6. Evenly coat the eggplant stuffing with some cornstarch on both side of the eggplant slices(set it aside for a few minutes before deep-frying, so that the flour will stick to the eggplant) and deep-fry it in medium hot oil until golden colour.
7. Drain and set aside. Blanch some extra basil leaves in hot oil, drained and crash it on top of the eggplants and serve with or with sauce dressing.
Thanks Ellena for the enlightening post. I have finally found out the Chinese name for Basil Leaves. I have heard of 九层塔 from Taiwanese Makan Show but I don't know it is actually Basil Leaves.
ReplyDeleteBtw, thanks for visiting Tazz's Blog. :)
You are welcome tazz... at 1st i also don't know it's called basil.. until recently i saw a few taiwan chinese cookbook then i know...lolz... that's how we exchange infor from food blog.
ReplyDeleteYou are also most welcome to hunt around my blog.... :)
hi ellena, glad u tried the bread recipe & liked it. actually appearance is one thing. most imptly is, must taste good. i didnt use paper cases, i bought the small flan tin from phoon huat, the size is just nice to put the bread in to bake =)
ReplyDeletedo u buy the u-weekly mag (the big issue one)? its quite good. every week they teach u how to make different kinds of bread. however for this bread, i thought it isnt soft & fluffy enough. abit heavy. not sure if its becoz i didnt roll the dough thinly enough. i wish it was fluffier!