December 15, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Dinner – New Recipe Stir Fried Bok Choy with pork, corn, mushrooms, shallot and green onion

EDecember 15, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Dinner – New Recipe Stir Fried Bok Choy with pork, corn, mushrooms, shallot and green onion

Luke and I ate a late lunch at Taj Mahal. Luke took the vegetarian choices and I ate saag and tandoori chicken with roasted onions.  The food was wonderful as usual.  We talked to Shamiz and invited him to the Christmas party.  He told us his daughter was studying at UBC and interested in foreign service.  

Taj Mahal’s wall is full of awards, Best of Burque, best Indian restaurant, etc.  the buffet now costs $11.50, so the price had gone up over the years but the quality has not gone down.  It is both of our favorite Indian restaurant.  One of the waiters is really good and when he came to the table and asked if there was anything he could get for us, I said, “Onion Culcha”.  He was puzzled and asked a question, “do you mean garlic Naan ?

I replied, yes.  In a few minutes when a fresh batch of garlic nan was ready he brought us two pieces of warm garlic nan.

Luke had an invitation to eat dinner at a friend's. I had decided to make Mapo Dofu, but Suzette and I decided to make a lighter dish.  I decided to stir fry a Bok Choy with corn kernels, mushrooms, pork, shallot, green onions, ginger, and garlic.  I separated the green leaves from the heavy white stalks, and sliced three mushrooms  diced six small green onions, and cut the kernels from an ear of corn.  I opened a bottle of strips of ginger pickled in salt since we did not have any fresh ginger.  I stir fried the meat with the garlic and ginger first, then the hard white parts of the Bok Choy and the shallot, then the green leaves of the Bok Choy with the mushrooms, the green onions, and corn.

I then made a thickening sauce with about 1 Tbsp. Each of soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine, about 1 tsp. of sesame oil, about 2 tsp. of corn starch and about 1/4 cup of water, about 1/3 cup in all and added that to the wok.  I cooked the vegetables and sauce for several minutes until the sauce thickened and all the ingredients appeared to have changed color and softened.  

Suzette heated some PPI basmati rice and we each filled glasses with water and ate a delicious light meal. 

We watched a bit of the Republican debate until I got depressed about what our friends and enemies in the world must be thinking about what America might do to them if one of the Republicans was elected President and decided to read my book instead. 

Bon Appetit