This is an adaptation with eggplant of one of my favourite dim sum dishes, pork spare ribs with plum sauce and black bean. Eggplant is one of the meatiest vegetables and it absorbs flavours even better than spare ribs.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 3 tbsp plum sauce -- This is the plum sauce you get with spring rolls.
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine -- Chinese cooking wine.
• 2 tbsp fermented black beans -- Fermented black beans kind of stink when you open the box, but they are soooooooooooooo good.
• 1-2 small pieces dried mandarin orange peel
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 chili pepper
• 2-3 tsp corn starch
• 1 small handful chopped green onion

Method

• Give the black beans a rinse, then soak both the black beans and the mandarin peel for 10 minutes.
• Drain the black beans and cut the mandarin peel into small pieces.
• Slice the chili pepper. If you want it less spicy, you can slit the chili lengthwise and remove the seeds first.

• Mix plum sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, black beans, mandarin peel, ginger, garlic and chili in a deep dish.
• Peel and cut eggplant into 1.5-2 cm cubes. You can keep the skin on too, but you'll have to use the "jau yau" technique (i.e. quickly deep fry them in oil for a few seconds) otherwise the skin tends to be too chewy.

• Mix the eggplant in the sauce and marinate for 1 hour.
• Before steaming, dust the eggplant with 2-3 tsp of corn starch and give it a toss. This will help thicken the sauce.
• Place the eggplant on a dish for steaming. I've opted to put the eggplant on a bed of fresh tofu because I happened to pick some up at the local market, but the recipe works fine without it. You could also use a bed of pumpkin or other squash, which is commonly done with the spare rib version, but you might have to pre-steam the squash because they take a while to cook.

• Place the dish in a wok on a steaming rack (or use a steamer if you have one). Cover and steam until the eggplant are soft. You can test by poking a skewer or toothpick in them. If there is no resistance, it's done. It should take 20-30 minutes.

• Garnish with chopped green onions.

Notes

• Beware of the water running dry when steaming. This has happened to every Chinese mother because she's preparing 5 dishes at the same time and yelling "sik fan ah!" at the top of her lungs trying to get everyone to come to the dinner table. Signs that the water has run dry: a distinct lack of steam, a very quiet wok or the sound of metal crinkling. The easiest way to add water is to use something with a spout like a measuring cup and pouring water down the side of the wok.
• Because there is a lot of steaming going on in Chinese households, every one has one of these simple racks to place dishes on. I always thought this was standard kitchen equipment before I search all over Poland (ok, just Warsaw) and could not find one. Eventually I had to get my mother to send me one from Canada, where there are a lot more Chinese people.

• Before I got my handy rack, I had to use the old school method of placing 2 chopsticks in the bottom of the wok. I remember as a kid there were always a few chopsticks that were curved because they had been used for steaming repeatedly. It was really annoying when you got one of these at the dinner table because the chopsticks wouldn't align and close properly, especially when you have tiny hands using adult size chopsticks. ("Kid size" chopsticks were not invented yet.)

• Removing the dish from the wok can be tricky. Which is why every Chinese household also has one of these claw devices to grab the dish. It's also great for chasing your kids and terrifying them. Mine seems to be immune though. Maybe he's gotten used to it after 27 years. If you don't have one of these claws, oven mitts will work.

• It helps to have a proper wok lid, which is dome shaped. This helps the condensed steam run down the side, back into the wok instead of into your dish, which also helps with the water running dry problem. Unfortunately, I only have a Swedish common sense IKEA flat wok lid. At least they had the common sense to make the lid out of glass, so I could watch the condensed steam drip into my dish and dilute my sauce.
• Lastly, but very importantly -- when choosing an eggplant, choose a cocky one who thinks he's so cool with his fancy haircut. We don't need eggplants like that around.