Billy arrived home from the Candy Lady, where he observed
an inspection of the premises around noon and I gave him some suggestions for
lunch. He decided on La Salita when I
mentioned that it made the best chili rellenos I had ever eaten. We dropped my bike off at the Bike Coop for
an adjustment and stopped at the bank to cash a check, so we arrived at La Salita
after 1:00 and it was nearly empty. I
immediately noticed a new item on the menu; “Build your own plate”, which
charged $11.45 for any three items with slightly higher surcharges for the
naked turkey relleno and the Swiss cheese stuffed relleno. My favorite is the Swiss cheese stuffed
relleno on a bed of turkey meat. Since
Billy does not eat rice and beans, the “Build Your Own” option was
perfect. We ordered three Swiss cheese filled
chili rellenos with garnish and chopped onions on the side and chose green
chili sauce. The waitress served the
platter with the three chili rellenos and an extra platter that we used to
divide the three rellenos between us. We
each took some of the garnish and I took the onions. Billy asked for extra tomatoes and the
waitress brought that also. It turned
out to be a perfect meal for us because we are concerned about too many carbs.
I think the total cost was around $13.86.
We then went to Ta Lin to buy a few items for
dinner. I bought Billy a bottle of Santa
Fe Olé green chili sauce and a 1 lb. package of shitake mushrooms, a package of
shredded wood ear, a 19 oz. tub of medium tofu, and two 7 oz. cans of
pimientos. Then we went home by way of
the bike coop.
At 6:00 I started cooking dinner. Billy and I cubed the large eggplant I had
bought at Sprouts ($.99) yesterday, one large onion, and 1 green Anaheim chili
pepper and we peeled and chopped up three small heads of garlic (about 2
Tbsps.) and Billy sliced two boneless pork sirloin chops (about 1 lb.) into 1 x
1/4 inch long slices and sliced about 1/3 lb. of shitake mushrooms into thin
slices and I thinly sliced and diced about 2 Tbsp. of diced fresh ginger. I then heated 4 Tbsp. of peanut oil in the
large wok and added the meat and garlic and ginger and added 1 large tsp. of
garlic chili sauce and stir fried it until it changed color from pink to
grey. I removed the meat and added the
large bowl full of diced eggplant, onion and green chili and stir fried that
for about twenty minutes until it was soft, while I went to the garden and
picked some Chinese Kale and chard leaves.
I stopped de-stemming the leaves and ran to the kitchen when Suzette
said she smelled something burning and found that the vegetable mixture had
scorched on the bottom of the wok for lack of liquid, so I added the meat back
with its oily residue and then added the mushrooms. I took the bowl which had held the meat and
ginger and garlic and filled it with about three cups of hot water and then
added Knorr chicken stock to t to make a chicken stock and added about 1 oz. of
the dried shredded black wood ear and added that to the wok and covered the
wok. I then diced about 5 oz. of tofu
and added that with the de-stemmed kale and chard and 1 Tbsp. of soy and 1 tsp.
of sesame oil and 1 Tbsp. of Chines Rice cooking wine and covered the wok to
let it cook at a rolling boil for another twenty minutes. I then uncovered it and let it simmer for
another ten minutes. The liquid was very
soupy and although Billy liked the soupiness, I decided to thicken the
sauce. So I mixed until smooth 3 heaping
tsps. of cornstarch in a bowl with 1 tsp. of sesame oil, 1 Tbsp. of soy and 1
Tbsp. of Chinese Rice cooking wine and 3 Tbsp. of water. I added that to the
wok and cooked it about five minutes, until it colored the sauce a slightly
brown color and the sauce seemed to thicken a bit. Suzette heated the PPI rice from last night’s
PPI Curry meal and set the table in the gazebo and we took plates of rice and
mapo dofu and glasses of lovely green tea ice tea Willy made to the gazebo in the
back yard and enjoyed a pleasant dinner al fresco. All agreed that the dish was a success but I
know the dish was a success because Billy returned for seconds. It was a very loose stew with lots of liquid. I put a little salt in but you do not need to
because the garlic chili sauce has salt in it, as does the Knorr Chicken stock.
The sauce was delicate and had that characteristic
perfumed aroma and taste that I find so agreeable in the Mastering the Art of
Chinese Cooking Cookbook; probably due to not over using the cooking wine and
soy.
Bon Appétit
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