This is a variation on a popular dish called Ma Po Tofu, where aubergine replaces the tofu. When making the Ma Po Tofu dish a couple times before, I found it was much better if you use homemade minced pork instead of shop bought ground pork.  This is a time consuming adjustment that you’ll probably choose to ignore, but I include instructions on how to mince your own pork in the hope of persuading you!

I also recommend marinading the pork as Ah Leung does here (but which I forgot to do in this pictorial) because “white pepper gives it great flavour and authentic chinese taste”. In a mixing bowl, add to the 1/2 or 3/4 lb of ground pork: 1/2 to 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp of corn starch, 1 tsp of light soy sauce, and 1 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. (I’ve included his photo of this process in the gallery).

I only discovered after making my pictorial that you can watch a video of Ching-He Huang making the dish on the BBC website too.  I do recommend watching this for the explanations she gives about adding water to the aubergines when you fry them (you don’t need so much oil) and adding cooking wine to the meat (it gets rid of the ‘rawness’ or odour of meat/fish).