Wok fired eggplant

This is a spicy dish that I unfortunately made inferno-hot. The recipe comes from Grace Young's book, The Breath of a Wok, which is beautiful if you ever are interested in stir-frying.

Basically it's steamed eggplant that is then stir fried with some chili and a basic stir fry sauce. I cut it in half as a main dish for one person, but forgot to cut the amount of chili in half. Fuego!

Shanghai bok choy (or any stir fried veggie)

Shanghai bok choy probably isn't really bok choy at all, but it's small leafy vegetable that is best served with a light sauce. My sauce consists of only 4 ingredients:

-Garlic
-Chicken stock
-Corn Starch
-Salt

Mix the last three together in a bowl. Bless the oil (i.e. throw the garlic into the hot oil for 10 seconds), sautee veggies in a wok for about 2 minutes until mildly wilted. Throw the sauce in, cover for 2 minutes. Uncover for 1 minute to let the sauce thicken. The veggies let off a surprising amount of water, so go easy on the volume of the sauce to avoid a watery puddle of veggies.

Eggplant x 2

Apparently eggplant is in season, and thus cheap and delicious. I like the long chinese eggplants, which generally have lighter skin and a more sweet flavor. Here are two things I did with eggplants in one night.

The first thing to keep in mind with eggplant is to cook it slowly. You can't grill/fry/saute it normally, because it's just too dense and watery. Imagine grilling a cucumber. Soggy mess, right?

I like roasting. Easy, no mess, and you can do lots with it. 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes and you're done. Roast longer for a softer, mellower flavor.


The first dish is stir fried eggplant with tofu. Follow the basic stir fry mantra: garlic/ginger, meat, veggies, sauce. The sauce is pretty basic stir fry (oyster, soy, wine, vinegar, corn starch, stock), but this should be sweeter and spicier than normal, so add sugar and chili.


As a side dish I made some sookjoo namul (korean bean sprout salad).



The second dish was baba ganoush, which used the other two eggplants. All it takes is tahini, olive oil, garlic, parsley and lemon juice. Mince the peeled eggplant into all the other stuff and season. Makes a good dipping sauce for snacking. (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this)

Fish with black beans

Black bean sauce is a pretty easy way to dress up Chinese food. Fish is tough to stir fry. Add these together and you have a dish that is of moderate difficulty.

1. Coat the fish in cornstarch, rice wine, and oil (I left this out and it stuck horribly)
2. Stir fry some garlic and broccoli. Remove.
   
3. Get a good crust on the fish (use a bit more oil and just drain it to make it less greasy)
   
4. Add back veggies. Throw in the black beans and a good amount of thickening fluid (i.e. corn starch and broth)
5. Garnish with scallions or cilantro
   

Singapore Fried Noodles

An American sensation, these curry fried noodles aren't able to be found anywhere in Singapore (trust me, I know). Usually, when you get this from the chinese place down the street it is really greasy. I tried to curb the grease, at the expense of getting good curry coverage. Next time, I'll dissolve the curry in a bit of oil and water before adding to the noodles.

1. Soak/boil rice noodles.
   
2. Marinate shrimp in soy sauce, rice wine, and cornstarch.
3. Wok fry the shrimp until JUST done. Set aside.
   
4. Fry garlic, onion, green peppers, scallion batons, and sprouts. S&P to taste. Set aside.
5. Add curry to a good bit of oil. Throw in some beaten eggs, fry for a little bit, add drained noodles.
   
6. Get good curry-age on the noodles, then add everything back in (including julienned leftover char siew).
   

Char siew - Chinese barbecued pork

This was a recipe I'd been trying to get right for a while. Usually, it's not worth making yourself because the char siew from the local market is excellent in most cases and cheap enough. But I'm not living in a place where I can get it that easily, so I had to make it myself. A mixture of burnt edges, sweet tang, and partially rendered fat make this dish a winner. Throw in some chinese broccoli (kai lan) on the side and it's almost like I'm back in Chinatown or Singapore.

This is going to be my style of "recipe". Remember, this is mostly by feel, mostly by experimentation.

1. Stab strips of fatty pork butt all over with a fork
   
2. Marinate in a mixture of hoisin, rice wine, ketchup, garlic, ginger, white pepper, five spice powder (ESSENTIAL for the right taste)
3. Throw on a rack in a 450 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, turning twice and brushing on leftover marinade. Look for black charring on the edges. Don't worry, it's not burnt, it tastes amazing....