Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables and Tortang Talong is one of my favorite meals of all time. Please don’t ask me what torta exactly means. All I know is that this meal is called tortang talong in the Philippines and it’s delicious. No, it’s divaaaa-ayn! If you’re one of ‘em that’s not so sure about eggplant, give this a try and let me know what you think.
First off, the ingredients:
1/4 lb. ground pork, 3 lg. eggs, 3 Chinese eggplants, salt and pepper
This meal particularly calls for Chinese eggplant, the long type of eggplant. They are readily available in any Asian store. I’ve never tried this recipe on the the globe eggplant type.
Now to the fun part.
First, brown the meat.
ground pork
browned meat
Set the browned meat aside. Heat your grill to medium and lay eggplants on the grate. (You may also use the stove if you don’t have a grill. Just turn it on and lay your eggplants, one at a time or as many as can fit within the range of the flame, and grill away. Now is not the time to step away and watch TV or do something else in the kitchen if you go this route. The eggplants are really jealous and will need your undivided attention. In other words, you don’t want to burn the house!)
beautiful purple plants - they're healthy too!
Give it 5-7 minutes before turning over. You want to achieve a good charring on the skin of the eggplant.
turnin' over
That’s my hunky babe’s hand working the first part of the cooking process.
Turn the eggplants over and grill for another 5-7 minutes. Do the same on the other two sides.
char on all sides
At this point, your immediate vicinity and your whole neighborhood will start smelling like delicious grilled eggplant with a subtle charred scent to it. I just love the smell of grilled eggplant!
When the skin is all charred and the eggplant has softened, you’re done. At least, for the first part.
Done!
Back inside, let the eggplant cool a little. Then peel off the skin, careful not to peel away the flesh.
peeling off the skin
Set aside.
Crack the eggs and season with salt and pepper.
three eggs
Heat a skillet. I use non-stick on this one. Just a little easier to cook that way for me. Add oil, about 4 tablespoons for two eggplants. Remember, you’re cooking eggs and eggplant and they need lotsa oil. (Hmm…eggs and eggplant. They belong together!!)
heat oil
Beat the eggs. With a fork, gently smash the eggplant in the eggs on both sides.
one side
the other side
Add one eggplant, or two if space permits, in pan. Remeber the browned meat we set aside awhile ago? Now’s it’s time to shine, baby! Scoop out a good amount and sprinkle it over the uncooked side.
one big eggplant
two small eggplants
Pour a little egg mix over the meat. This will help hold the meat together when it cooks.
egg over meat
Turn over and cook the other side.
yum-olicious!
At this point, heat up some rice so you won’t be waiting to eat! (Oh, I almost always have rice in the fridge because we eat A LOT of rice. If you don’t have any rice readily available, make sure to cook rice before you even grill the eggplants.) Look at that gorgeous jasmine rice. Mmmm…mmmm!
eat me!!
Then wed the rice with the cooked eggplant torta and let your palate feast on this wonderfulicous food!
delish!
If you want a little seasoning, you may use soy sauce. But if you happen to have Maggi Savor Kalamansi flavor, by golly, use it to your heart’s desire. My hubby thinks savor should go on everything. Almost. I don’t think it will work with pizza!
Flavoricious!
Enjoy!
(If you’ve given this a try for the first time, let me know what you think!)
And it tasted great too! Hmmm….