On Wednesday, our favorite PC goes to practice her other love... Singing. She is a member of the San Francisco City Chorus singing as a first soprano. (Check out previous posts for concert information.) Practice is from 7-9:30pm which by the time Jen gets off work leaves her little time to hit the gym, cook, and eat dinner before she has to trek to Lakeside Presbyterian Church. So, to support her endeavor, I step in to get dinner on the table and get her to practice on time. I've taken this opportunity to either try out every new take out place I can think of between work and home or actually cook something eatable. Although, I am the son of parents who should be master chefs in their own right, I couldn't make anything more complicated than a turkey sandwich with processed prepackaged meats and kraft singles until a couple years ago. As such Wednesdays are my culinary adventure days.
This week I learned about eggplant, you know, those odd-shaped, purple vegetables (or are they fruit because they do have seeds). As with most of my adventures, I didn't have a plan just a vague idea; I stir-fried a eggplant, pork, and tofu concoction with bean sprouts, carrots, and snow peas in a peanut sauce. Stir-frying is just a matter of combining ingredients the right order for everything to cook properly and have the ingredients influence each other. The pork and tofu were simple, just cut to size and cook them separately after all the vegetables. The snow peas and carrots took a little more thought. They had to be braised to not overcook them with direct heat and you want to keep them raw enough to maintain their snap. Braising for those who don't know is just a method of cooking things in water and allowing it to steam. The eggplant was the most challenging.
- Jen fact #1 I learned was you know it's done when its white flesh is clear or a little green. To get to that point, it often takes a lot of oil and time cook.
- Jen fact #2, although I didn't try it, if you lightly salt the diced eggplant before hand, it will cook faster and absorb less oil during the cooking process.
- Bonus Heather (our housemate, one of Jen's best friends) Fact: lightly salting the eggplant also helps it maintain its shape and not turn into a mush which it can do.
As such, I came up with this recipe.
3 Tablespoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, cut to strips
1 large eggplant, cut to 1/2" cubes
1 large carrot, diced
1 handful of snow peas, cut to bite size
1 cup of bean sprouts (optional)
1 package of tofu, cut to 1/2" cubes
1/2 lb pork tenderloin, cut to small strips
Payang Peanut sauce, season to taste
Heat 3T oil in wok. Add garlic and onions. Cook onions until golden. Add eggplant. Cook until eggplant flesh is mostly clear. (Note: this will be almost half your cooking time) Stir occasionally. Add carrots and snow peas. Mix to combine. Add a 1/4 cup of water to wok and cover to steam the vegetables. Remove contents to bowl. Add 1t oil to wok. Add pork and tofu. Continuously toss to evenly heat pork. When the pork is cooked through, combine and mix the vegetables in the wok. Add bean sprouts and peanut sauce to taste. Stir to combine evenly.
It turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Give an eggplant a break. You might just like it.
In writing this post, I thought of a couple new features for the blog. I'll be adding "culinary terms defined" section, cool recipes, diner submitted pictures of Jen's desserts (I need help with this one people. Jen won't let me go eat them all.), and reader suggestions for Jen to add to her menu. Sound in if you have more ideas or suggestions on what I should add.
