Recipe
Cha Traop Dot (recipe)
Whole eggplants softened in the oven and charred on the grill, split and topped with pork fried with fermented soybeans.
This cha traop dot recipe makes Cambodian grilled eggplant topped with minced pork stir-fried with fermented soybeans, oyster sauce and garlic.[1] Chef Kethana Dunnet, owner of the Siem Reap restaurant Sugar Palm, taught it to the Grantourismo Travels authors in a private cooking class. It was among the first Cambodian dishes they learned after moving to Siem Reap in 2013.[1]
In Khmer the dish is commonly called chha trob. The name means fried eggplant, although the eggplant is grilled and only the pork is stir-fried. A more precise name for the whole dish is trob dot chha sach chrouk chenh chram. The eggplant can be cooked on an outdoor barbecue, a Korean grill, a traditional clay brazier or a stovetop.[1]
Ingredients
- 2 large eggplants, such as graffiti or Sicilian
- 300 g pork mince
- 3 tbsp fermented soybeans
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 spring onions, finely sliced, to garnish
- 1 pinch salt, to taste
- 1 pinch pepper, to taste
Method
- The eggplants are pricked, brushed with oil and set on an oven rack.
- They bake at 180 °C (355 °F), turned every 10 minutes, until softened.
- The whole eggplants are then charred on a barbecue until the skins blacken, and left to cool slightly while the pork cooks.
- The oil is heated in a wok over medium-high heat.
- The pork is fried until it colors, then the soybeans, oyster sauce and garlic are added and cooked until fragrant.
- The seasoning is tasted and adjusted.
- The eggplants are peeled, halved and opened out, and the pork is spooned over.
- Sliced spring onions finish the dish.[1]