June 3, 5 and 6, 2014 Dinner Taj Mahal Restaurant, Salmon Cesar Salad and Eggplant in Garlic Sauce with chicken

June 3, 5 and 6, 2014 Dinner   Taj Mahal Restaurant, Salmon Cesar Salad and Eggplant in Garlic Sauce with chicken

We have been working and catching dinner as quickly as possible.  Last night I made a salmon salad with the teriyaki salmon we cooked last Sunday and greens from the garden and kernels of corn shaved off an ear of cooked PPI white corn and 2/3 of a large tomato plus some fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinaigrette made with our new Portuguese olive oil we bought in Oporto plus a little red onion and five large leaves of fresh basil from the garden sliced thinly to garnish the tomatoes.  Then at 7:00 we went to the 7 plays at the Fusion Theatre.

On Tuesday, I helped Tara Singh who is the Executive Chef at Taj Mahal prepare his Affidavits of Sponsorship for relatives and he treated Suzette and me to a big Indian dinner at Taj Mahal on Tuesday night.  All the food was delicious, but they gave us so much we had to take 1/2 of it home and I have eaten Indian food for lunch for the last two days.

Tandoori Chicken Tiki Masala 

Samosa with potato and green peas

Tandoori Onion Culcha 

Lamb Saag 

Lamb meatballs in curry sauce

papadums.

Tonight we decided to use our eggplant that has been in the fridge for a week and the PPI chicken from last Saturday.  I cut 2 inch long sticks of eggplant and cubed the chicken and cleaned and minced three stalks of garlic from out garden and Suzette made the recipe from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking.   Here is the recipe:

The author, Eileen Yin Fei Lo, cooks with a style that adds fragrance to the food by adding small amounts of rice cooking wine to many recipes, rather than overpowering them with flavorings. 

Eggplant with Garlic Sauce.

You first make the Sauce

1 Tbsp. double dark soy sauce

2 tsp. Oyster Sauce

1 tsp. white rice wine vinegar

½ tsp. Shaoxing wine

½ tsp. pepper flakes from hot oil (we reduce this to avoid making the dish too spicy)

½ tsp. of cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. of chicken stock

Then I minced 2 Tbsp.s of fresh garlic

Then I diced about 1 ½ lb. of PPI roasted chicken into ½ inch cubes

Then I sliced the large Chinese Eggplant into two inch by ½ inch strips (about two pounds) while Suzette made the sauce. 

Then Suzette sautéed the eggplant strips until tender in heated peanut oil.  The recipe calls for deep frying the eggplant strips in 4 cups of peanut oil, but we never use that much oil.

After Suzette had stir fried the eggplant, she stir fried the garlic and then added the chicken.  Then she returned the eggplants to the wok and stir fried the eggplant with the meat for a minute and then made a well in the middle of the ingredients and added the sauce and cooked the eggplant mixture for a minute or two. 

We made rice with lily pods, laid the eggplant dish on the rice, and ate dinner with a beer in the garden.

Later in the evening Megan came by and we drank glasses of Le Ferme Julien and talked about her recent trip to Oaxaca.  

A pleasant Friday night.

Bon Appétit