Was looking for a new way to cook eggplant and here’s what I did — eggplant with minced meat. Essentially, it is eggplant topped with saucy ground pork, making it a perfect topping over steamed rice.

Easy to cook, and less than a hundred pesos to make, it is definitely another entry in our annual list of P100 Ulam Ideas for this year. The only downside here is that it is not baby or toddler friendly so I have to prep something else for shobz and the little guy. Not baby-friendly as we will be needing soy sauce and oyster sauce for this recipe.

Anyway, for newbie cooking mamas who may want to try this, here’s a rough guide:

3-4 medium sized eggplants, sliced.

1 medium sized onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 kg ground meat (you can use beef, pork or chicken — i used lean ground pork for this recipe)

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp (or more depending on your taste) light oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce (or more depending on your taste)

1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

Slurry mix: 1/2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp of water

Sesame oil

1. Fry the sliced eggplants and set aside.
2. Saute chopped onions, garlic and ginger. Add in the ground meat (pork is great but i think beef or chicken will be good for this too). 3. Add in half a cup of water.
4. Add in light oyster sauce, adjusted to taste. Add in a tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine.
5. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add in half a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in one tablespoon of water.
7. Stir and then simmer for two minutes.

8. Add in a dash of sesame oil.

9. Pour over fried eggplants and serve.

So there you have it. Hope you’d give this eggplant and minced meat recipe a try. For more recipes, mealplans budget ulam ideas please check out the recipes section of our website or browse our recipe and mealplan facebook album. Hope you can also follow our Instagram account @happypinaymommy and our Pinterest board where we regularly post family ulam ideas that are yummy, easy to cook and budget-friendly. See you there!