I blogged from 3:35 to 5:30 or 6:00 and then dozed until 7:15. I showered and worked without breakfast until noon.
Aaron called and I met him at AmerAsia at 12:30. We ate six items today: rice with spicy pork, stuffed tofu, fried bread, chicken and water chestnut steamed dumplings, beef meatball inside fried dumpling, and steamed buns stuffed with BBQ Pork and sweet bean paste.
How you can tell you are a regular. The lady helping Hysong came to our table and asked, “Do you want Tofu?” I always order deep fried tofu stuffed with wood ear and shiitake mushrooms and stewed in a broth. It took me a moment to understand her broken English and then I replied, “Yes, please.” It was the best I have eaten in a long time because it was freshly made to order.
I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture, but it was delicious. After lunch we were treated to a plate of deep fried dumpling dough dusted with powdered sugar.
At 6:00 I drove to El Super for the produce specials. Wednesday specials are sometimes ridiculously inexpensive. The ones that blew me away today was organic zucchini for 2 lb. for $.89, nice asparagus for $1.36/lb., and cauliflower for $.50/lb. Today there were also three mangos or grapefruit for $.99, 3 lb. of bananas or onions for $.99, asparagus for $1.39/lb., lemons were $.59/lb., mandarin oranges were $.69/lb., beautiful Roma tomatoes for $.50/lb., Persian limes were $1.19/lb., 8 oz. of white mushrooms for $1.39, and Red delicious apples were 2 lb. for $.99.
I love shopping at El Super on Wednesday. The specials guide our menu to some extent. For example, I bought zucchini, so now we need to come up with a dish with zucchini as an ingredient.
We also have an extra eggplant and I bought some tomatoes, and mushrooms, so perhaps a redo of the baked eggplant and zucchini in spaghetti sauce and mozzarella Suzette made last week.
When I returned home Suzette was ready to start dinner. We decided to cook Garlic Eggplant with duck, rice, and steamed green beans.
I sliced two medium eggplants into two inch by ½ inch rectangles. I should have cut y. two duck breasts into strips to match the shape of the eggplant, but I cubed the duck instead. Then two large mushrooms, two green onions, and six small cloves of garlic.
Suzette fried the eggplant and made the seasoning sauce with Oyster sauce, soy, cornstarch, and Chinese cooking wine.
Then Suzette reduced the amount of peanut oil and stir fried the duck, garlic, mushrooms, and green onions, then added the seasoning sauce and finally returned the sautéed eggplant and cooked everything together to complete the dish.
Here is a picture of the recipe.
‘This is Suzette’s favorite eggplant dish. My favorite is Mapo Dofu, which we now have all the ingredients for, so I might make it soon.
The most interesting thing about the meal prep was that Suzette took over rice making duties today. She followed my instructions perfectly. Bring 2 cups of water with a dash of dehydrated chicken stock to a boil. Then add 1 cup of basmati rice, cover, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 30 minutes. The rice was perfect, dry and fluffy.
She also snapped about ½ lb. of green beans and steamed them in the steamer.
We ate around 8:30 and Willy came a little later after he went to the gym and I joined him with my second plate of food.
He finished the eggplant with his seconds. A little after 9:00 I gave him three lemons and two mandarin oranges and we said goodnight. Suzette went to bed and I watched the news until 10:00 and then went to bed and blogged a bit until I became sleepy.
I awoke at 3:30 and finished the blog. I am not as energized tonight. After drinking a glass of water and finishing this blog at approximately 4:30 I will return to bed.
Bon Appetit
M
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