chinese ground pork & eggplant

When you live with 2 boys ground meats are part of our daily dinners.  One meat that is often overlooked is ground pork and when I'm on overload with beef, chicken or turkey I turn to the other white meat.  My go to dish with ground pork, aside from meatloaf, is this chinese ground pork and eggplant dish that is super easy to make.

One of my favorite dishes is Mapo Tofu, but because I'm surrounded by carnivors the chance of making that dish is slim to none.  That's why I love this dish because it has similar flavors using easy ingredients.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 tbsp of chili garlic sauce (can you tell from my other recipes that I love this stuff?)
• 2 tbps of white granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 3 tbsp of rice wine vinegar (white vinegar works as well)
• 1.5 lbs of ground pork
• 1 large eggplant chopped
• 4 tbsp of sesame oil 

Directions:

• Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a wok on high heat.  While wok his heating, in a small bowl mix chili garlic sauce, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, vinegar and ginger.
• When wok is hot, add eggplant and cook until halfway tender.
• Remove from wok and set aside.
• Re-heat the other 2 tbsp of olive oil and crumble ground pork until cooked.
• Add sauce mixture to meat and coat evenly.  
• Mix eggplant into the meat and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Serve over rice or quinoa.

This is a comfort dish for me and is so delish on those cold winter nights.  It's super easy to make and is such a great alternate to other ground meats.  Enjoy!