I will not be hungry in this world

How I would illustrate the Word of the Day

The Word of the Day is:

rictus \RIK-tus\ noun

1 : the gape of a bird's mouth
2 a : the mouth orifice *b: a gaping grin or grimace

Example sentence:
Randy's face contorted into a rictus that made his promise to keep Phoebe's secret seem insincere.

The computer ate my pictures.....

Y'all, I don't know how it happened, but my laptop ate most of the remaining pictures from this dinner, so I put off writing this in the hopes of retrieving them, but no amount of bribing or begging made a difference.  I'll do better next time, promise!!

Asian dinner- Part 2

Eggplant is one of my favorite dishes.  Baba Ganoush, Baingan, Moussaka, I love it in all its forms.  The best meals I had in Russia on our RTW trip involved eggplant..one at  a Georgian restaurant in Moscow and the other at a Chinese restaurant in St. Petersburg.  Funny thing is, my mom would make Baingain Bhartha (an Indian eggplant dish) (which my brother and I turned up our noses at and dubbed 'Banging Bertha' a la Garbage Pail Kids...yeah whaddya want..we were TEN). 

With all this in mind, I found a great recipe from Charles Phan of Slanted Door fame for  Braised Eggplant in a Coconut Milk Sauce from a 2005 issue of Food and Wine magazine. No pictures though!

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 medium onion, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced lengthwise
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 1/4 pounds Asian or Italian eggplants (about 4) cut up into 3 by 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup Chinese cooking wine, sake, or water
• 1/2 cup Vietnamese Stir-fry Sauce (becuase this calls for fish sauce, I used a blend of low-sodium soy sauce, vegetable stock, and a dash of sugar)
• 1/2 cup +2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk, stirred just before using
• 2 tsp Asian chili paste
• 4 large scallions, white and tender green parts only, cut into 3/4 inch lengths

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet or wok until small puffs of smoke appear. Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry over high heat until the onion is just crisp-tender, about a minute. Add the eggplant and stir-fry until browned or just tender, abot 5 minutes. Add the Chinese cooking wine (or other liquid) and cook until nearly evaporated, just about a minute. Add the stir-fry sauce, water, coconut milk, and chili paste, Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, unitl the eggplant is very tender, and the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions and cook for 30 seconds.  Serve hot.

As a main dish this serves four, but I doubled the recipe and it easily served everyone, plus there were some tasty leftovers.

For my next dish, I decided to go for finger food- my sweetie did a heroic job and wrapped 40 dumplings with precision and skill. See the fruits of his labor below........

Spinach and Tofu Dumplings

• 5 ounces baby spinach (5 packed cups)
• 5 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 small jalapeños, seeded and minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• About 45 square wonton wrappers (from 1 package)

Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey

MAKE THE DUMPLINGS:

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook for 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the spinach to a colander. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze it dry, then coarsely chop it. Keep the water hot. Transfer the spinach to a medium bowl and stir in the tofu, cornstarch, jalapeños, soy sauce and sesame oil and season with salt and pepper. Working with 4 wonton wrappers at a time, dampen the edges and mound 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling in the center of each wrapper. Fold 1 corner of each up over the filling and seal to make triangles. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

MAKE THE DIPPING SAUCE: In a small serving bowl, stir the soy sauce with the vinegar and honey. Return the water to a boil. Add the dumplings and simmer over moderate heat, stirring gently, until the edges are al dente, about 3 minutes. Carefully drain in a colander and transfer to a platter. Serve with the dipping sauce.

The final entree was an ubiquitous and always yummy curry dish.

Red Curry with Vegetables

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or other neutral tasting cooking oil like peanut)
• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste* (I opted for the easy way out and bought some ready made from my local Maxim market)
• 1 sweet red bell pepper cut into strips
• 2 ounces broccoli (about one small head) cut into bite-size florets
• 2 ounces cauliflower (approx. 1/4 head) cut into bite-size florets
• 1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
• 4 ounces snow peas
• 1 small zucchini, cut into julienne strips approximately 2 inches long and 1/8 inch thick
• 2 ounces bamboo shoots cut into strips
• I can baby corn, drained

PREPARATION:

*Ingredient Note: Commonly available grocery store brands of red curry paste like Thai Kitchen and Taste of Thai are vegetarian. If you're shopping at an Asian grocery, check the label. Some Thai brands include shrimp paste in the ingredients.

Heat oil in a large soup pot or sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add curry paste, mashing with the back of a spoon, and sauté until fragrant (about 1 minute).

Add broccoli and cauliflower and mix well to coat with curry paste. Stir-fry for two minutes. Add bell pepper and stir-fry for 2 more minutes. Add coconut milk and stir. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add zucchini, bamboo shoots, and baby corn and simmer for five more minutes. At this point, the vegetables will be done or nearly so, so stir gently. Check vegetables for doneness.

Serve hot with steamed jasmine rice.