Poqui poqui

At first it was like, WTF! How could I eat it, if I could not even pronounce it out loud specially in front of my children??? As it turns out. It was just "ensaladang talong" but originated and made popularized by the Ilocanos. Ok now I get it!

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplant
• 1 cup ground pork or beef
• 2 gloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1 medium sized onion, minced
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, quartered with seeds removed
• salt and pepper
• 4 medium egg, slightly beaten
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Cooking Procedure:

1. Grill your eggplants using your gas stove or charcoal.
2. When cooked, remove charred skin of eggplant under running water. Chop about an inch long, mash until softened and then set aside.
3. Heat oil in pan, add the ground meat.Stir until cooked.
4. Set the meat aside on the pan then saute onion until translucent and garlic until slightly brown.
5. Add tomatoes and eggplant, then slight stir all ingredients.
6. Add the lightly beaten eggs and stir until the egg has set.
7. Season with salt and pepper to desired taste.
8. Serve while still hot.

Tips:

• You may use ground pork or ground beef.
• You could add some kick on the taste by adding some chili fingers.

Watch video here:

Just so you know:

Eggplants are grilled, peeled and mashed and sautéed with onions, garlic and tomatoes and a beaten egg. In Hawaii, the word Poki means cut up or sometimes means to mash. This is where it got it’s name since at lot of Ilocanos migrated to Hawaii in the 80’s to plant pineapples.