March 28, 2018 Lunch – East Ocean. Dinner – Mapo Dofu

March 28, 2018 Lunch – East Ocean. Dinner – Mapo Dofu

I ate ½ of a whole wheat everything bagel with cream cheese, sliced Lax and onion garnished with capers for breakfast.

I went with Aaron to lunch at East Ocean.  I ordered Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables ($7.95) and Manila clams in Szechuan Sauce ($9.95).  The dishes are served with rice and tea.  A lunch of these two dishes is one of my absolute favorite lunches in Albuquerque.  The menu and prices for these two regular menu items are the same at dinner, so I would make the same statement with regard to dinner.  For four people at dinner or lunch, I recommend also ordering Moo Shu Pork.

When I returned home I thawed two pork steaks.  At 5:00 I diced 2 Mexican Squash, 1 eggplant, 1 small onion, and ½ of a poblano chili and then went to meditate.

When I returned home from meditation a bit before 7:00 I cubed 1 of the ½ lb. pork steaks, about 1 ½ T. of ginger, and 1 ½ T. of garlic.

             From left to right. Chili garlic sauce, Chinese Cooking wine, and white soy sauce

I heated 2 or 3 T. of peanut oil in my wok and stir fried the pork, ginger, and garlic with the addition of 1 heaping tsp. of chili garlic sauce (on left side of above photo).

I removed the meat and added the vegetables and another T. of peanut oil and a tsp. of sesame oil and stir fried them to coat them with oil.  I stirred the vegetables occasionally while they cooked which took about twenty minutes.  While the vegetables were cooking I soaked seven or eight dried shitake mushrooms and 1 T. of shredded black wood ear in about two cups of hot water to re-hydrate them and also diced about 8 oz. of medium tofu.

                                         Dried shitake mushrooms and dried wood ear

After twenty minutes the vegetables began to soften.  I then added the tofu, rehydrated shitake mushrooms that I had sliced into bite sized strips,  the rehydrated wood ear strips (a type of fungus), and their soaking water to the vegetables in the wok, along with 2 T. of Chinese Cooking wine and 1 tsp. of sesame oil,

I cooked the mixture in the wok for another twenty to thirty minutes.  I made a seasoning sauce with 2 to 3 T. of Chinese Cooking wine, 1 T. of white soy sauce, 1 tsp. of sesame oil, 1 T. of cornstarch, and about 1/3 cup of water.

I added the seasoning sauce and cooked the dish for another five minutes until the liquid started to thicken.  I went to the fridge for beers, our preferred beverage for spicy Szechuan food.

The finished dish

I heated about ½ cup of PPI basmati rice in the microwave and we ladled the Mapo Dofu onto our plates.

By adding Mexican squash or zucchini and onion, I make it a more vegetable rich dish.

I usually use an entire 14 oz. container of tofu, but had only 8 oz. tonight.

Here is the base recipe I started with from the Good Food of Szechuan Cookbook:

I find all of the Oriental ingredients at Talin grocery at the corner of Louisiana and Central.

Bon Appetit