Stir-Fried Pork, Eggplant, and Onion with Garlic and Black Pepper (CATKTV)

Sauce

• 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 2 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons juice from 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Pork and Vegetables

• 1 (12-ounce) pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin and cut into 1/4 inch strips [I used pork loin because the only tenderloin at Stop and Shop is pre-marinated.]
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• 12 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1/4 cup) [Peeling and microplane-ing this amount of garlic took ridiculous amount of time.]
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 medium eggplant (1 pound), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/4-inch wedges
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  

Between peeling and finely grating the garlic, hand-grinding the black pepper, and picking off cilantro leaves, the prep involved was INVOLVED.
The other prep was a breeze later in comparison, and stir-fries are the opposite of a 3-hour braise.


Cooking through the slivers of pork in about 2 minutes.


Browning the eggplant until it is no longer spongy. I saw some graffiti eggplant at Trader Joe's yesterday. I wish I had been playing with that.




In goes the onions.
Also keep in mind, that everything is being cooked in stages over high heat. Most things cooked in just a couple of minutes. The eggplant just took a few minutes longer.


Clearing out the center of the pan and cooking the aromatics (in this case, garlic and black pepper) in the center of the pan seems like it's a pretty classic technique for cuisines ranging from Southeast Asia to Italy.


A strong stir-fry. It didn't wow me, but it certainly tasted cleaner than oily thing I might hope to expect to order in a restaurant.
Plus there's about 3 more recipes worth of pork loin in my freezer now.