How to Cook Eggplant Soup
Eggplant soup with tofu, pork belly, and betel leaves, combined with fermented rice and turmeric, is an incredibly flavorful dish. Cookbeo believes this soup is one that home cooks should not miss.
Ingredients
- 4-5 eggplants
- 3 pieces of tofu
- 200g pork belly
- 2-3 shallots
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- Green onions, perilla leaves, betel leaves
- Rock salt
- 1 fresh turmeric root or turmeric powder
- 1-2 chilies
- Seasonings: Fermented rice, fish sauce, shrimp paste, MSG, sugar, ground pepper
Instructions
Prepare the eggplants
Trim the ends of the eggplants, wash thoroughly, then cut them into chunks or round slices, depending on your preference.
After cutting, eggplants tend to darken due to oxidation, so soak them in a bowl of water mixed with a little rock salt.
Prepare the other ingredients
Rub the pork belly with rock salt, rinse, and pat dry, then slice it into 5mm thick pieces. Marinate the pork with 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce and a little ground pepper.
Rinse the tofu and cut it into pieces just before frying to prevent it from drying out.
Peel and finely chop the shallots and garlic.
Rinse the chilies and chop them or cut into sections.
Trim the roots of the green onions, perilla, and betel leaves, rinse in salted water, and chop roughly. Be careful not to use too many perilla leaves, as they can make the soup bitter and alter the color. If you have, you can also add some Vietnamese balm leaves to enhance the flavor of the eggplant soup.
Strain the fermented rice through a sieve into a bowl.
If using fresh turmeric, wash and pound it, then extract the juice. However, turmeric juice tends to darken over time, so add a few drops of lemon juice to keep it bright yellow.
Fry the tofu
Add cooking oil to a pan. When the oil is hot, fry the tofu over medium-high heat. To achieve a golden color, you can add a pinch of turmeric powder, a few slices of fresh turmeric, or the extracted turmeric juice to the oil.
The tofu doesn't need to be fried until crispy; just fry until the surface turns golden and slightly firm to prevent it from breaking during cooking. Set the fried tofu aside in a bowl.
Lightly fry the eggplants
After soaking the eggplants in salt water, drain and rinse them, then pat dry. Add the eggplants to the same pan used to fry the tofu. Lightly fry the eggplants to enhance their flavor and prevent them from becoming mushy when cooked.
Cook the eggplant soup
Add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil to a pot (using the oil from frying the tofu and eggplants for added flavor), then add the chopped shallots and garlic, and sauté until fragrant. Next, add 1 tablespoon of shrimp paste and stir-fry.
Once the shrimp paste is aromatic, add the pork belly and sear until lightly browned, then add the fried eggplants and stir well.
When the soup comes to a boil, add the fried tofu.
Next, stir in the strained fermented rice and season the soup to taste with rock salt, sugar, MSG, and fish sauce. The soup should have a strong, savory flavor with a mild sourness from the fermented rice.
Cook for another 5 minutes to allow the eggplants to soften and the tofu to absorb the flavors. Finally, add the chopped green onions, perilla, betel leaves, and chilies, then stir.
You can also try a variation of this dish by adding snails and making a version similar to the famous Vietnamese snail and tofu stew with bananas.
