Aubergine with minced pork salad

Not an authentic recipe, kind of Asian fusion that I throw together. Easy recipe. Tangy and spicy rather nice and very pretty.

For the recipe: (enough for 3 - 4)

2 large aubergines or eggplants

Stir fry meat:

About 2 tbsp of cooking oil

About 180 - 200g minced pork

3 - 4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tsp of fish sauce

pinch of ground pepper

dressing:

1 – 2 large red chillies chopped

1 - 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced

About 1 ½ - 2 tbsp of fish sauce, to your taste

1 – 2 tbsp of palm sugar or white sugar, to your taste

2 - 3 tbsp of warm water

Juice of 1 lime (about 2 - 3 tbsp)

about 1 tsp of zest from the lime

Large handful of Thai sweet basil and coriander, chopped

extra chilli for garnish

Some lettuce leaves like little gem or cos/ Romaine lettuce

Method:

1. Roast/bake the aubergines at around 180deg C for about 45 minutes or till really tender and soft. Leave to cool a little then break them up into small pieces with 2 forks.
2. In a wok or large pan, heat the oil then throw in the garlic, fry till fragrant. Add pork, stir fry till brown and loosen the meat up into bits. Add lime leaves and seasoned with fish sauce and pepper. Turn heat off and leave meat to cool a little
3. To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients together.
4. To assemble the dish, in a bowl mix the roasted aubergine, cooked pork mince and ¾ of the dressing and ¾ of the chopped sweet basil and coriander together. In a large serving plate, line it with some lettuce leaves. Then pile on the aubergine and pork mixture. Sprinkle on the remaining dressing on top, the remaining basil and coriander and maybe some more chilli.

* If you like a bit of crunch you can sprinkle on some roasted and chopped peanuts.

** if you don't have sweet thai basil you can use normal basil

***For vegetarian version you can substitute the pork with chopped tempeh, seitan or fried firm tofu