August 13, 2018 Lunch – Padilla’s Dinner – Mapo Dofu and PPI Couscous

August 13, 2018 Lunch – Padilla’s   Dinner – Mapo Dofu and PPI Couscous

Breakfast was granola, milk, yogurt, figs, and banana.

At lunch I went to Padilla’s and ordered my usual, Chile Relleno plate with green Chile,  onions, and double beans.  I ate ½ and took the other half home, but ate the two hot sopapillas with honey.

I did okay in the market today with a loss of less than the main indices.

I rested from 3:00 to 4:15.

Suzette came home a bit after 5:00 having bought a package of prosciutto.  She wanted to wrap pieces of Santa Claus melon with prosciutto. I cut ½ of the Santa Claus melon I bought a week ago, but it was not sweet like the last melon.  We opened a bottle of Astoria prosecco that was a little sweet.  We enjoyed the refreshing melon and creamy prosciutto, even though the melon lacked sweetness.

Then I started making Mapo Dofu.  This one utilized all the odds and ends in the fridge, including the two ichiban eggplants, four okra and handful of string beans Willy brought us from his garden plus an eggplant I bought at Sprouts last week, ten or eleven cloves of garlic,  about 2 T. of ginger, 2 Mexican squash diced,  the 1 lb. of meat from two pork chops diced, and 1 medium onion diced.  I put all these ingredients into a large wok with about ¼ cup of peanut oil, 2 tsp. of sesame oil, and 2 tsp. of chili/garlic sauce and stir fried it until all the ingredients took on color.

While the ingredients were cooking I rehydrated about 2 T. of dried black wood ear strips and three dried shitake in two cups of hot water and diced 14 oz. of firm tofu, which I added after about thirty minutes.
I covered the wok and let it steam cook for another twenty minutes.  Then I added 2 T. of soy sauce and 1 T. of Chinese Cooking Wine.

We had no cornstarch, so I stir fried the mixture a couple more minutes uncovered while I made a cup of green tea.

When made properly, and tonight was one such occasion, the dish has a fragrant aroma.

Suzette heated the PPI Couscous and put about 1/3 cup in a pasta bowl for me, Suzette ate no Couscous, and we each filled our pasta bowls with Mapo Dofu

The Mapo Dofu

                                                                  The Couscous

 

                        Here are the seasoning sauces I used in the dish: Chinese Cooking wine, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce

We ate as we watched the Antiques Roadshow.  I drank green tea and Suzette drank water.

I love Mapo Dofu which is mainly a tofu and pork stew with lots of vegetables and wood ear.

Bon Appeti