Curry Eggplant Stewp

It was a great throw together meal. I've been feeling a little under the weather today. On top of that I've had to run around like crazy from bank to bank trying to get things organized for our upcoming house purchase. Of course, today is the day that the kids decide to push their limits with me. Or maybe my tolerance is low so I put my foot down. They had a playground session and a cherry shopping trip taken away for poor behaviour.
Anyways. Home again at 6 p.m. Dinner is on my mind. Whenever I feel sick, there are two kinds of food I crave - hot spicy broth and fish jook aka congee aka rice porridge. Well, I had already thrown some frozen chicken bones, onion scraps and rice into my Thermos pot in the morning before I left. So jook was ready to go. But none of my healthy family members would be satisfied with a bowl of soupy jook. So hot spicy broth it was.
I recently acquired a Costco membership so in my fridge was a giganto bag of eggplant and another one of red peppers. Scrounging around brought out a can of whole mushrooms and another of chicken broth. So I sauteed half an onion with some ginger slices. Then threw in some sliced eggplants - the asian long skinny kinds. I had an inspiration for spicy fried eggplant which worked great since I couldn't make the soup spicy on account of the kidlets. I scooped about 2 eggplants worth out of the soup pot and started frying it in a fry pan til they were browned and crispish-chewy. I drizzled shoyu and chili garlic sauce on them and they were delicious. The perfect heat adding condiment for this stewp.
Back to the stewp: eggplant was sauteeing with ginger and onion. I rough chopped 2 red peppers and sauteed them for a couple of minutes. Then I added a can of whole mushrooms, the chicken broth and some water. I tried to figure out seasonings and decided to go with some cumin and mild curry powder. The garam marsala was set aside along with the 30,000 btu cayenne powder as they are not kid-friendly. When the pot boiling briskly, I added a few handfuls of quinoa. I wanted to control this as I wanted to keep a soup consistency and not go all the way into stew consistency. Then when the quinoa was nearly done, I stirred in a cubed breast of chicken. Last time I cooked a chicken breast in this wet heat way I way overcooked it. So this time I was super cautious. As soon as the soup was back to barely a simmer I turned the heat to low and left it for 10 minutes. Then I fished out the biggest cube I could find and cut it open to test it. It was done. So I turned off the heat and put the lid on. Metta and the kiddies weren't in from playing in the street (sound terrible don't it? ) so I headed into the bedroom (by the stream, ahhh) to geek out a little on the computer.
Ten minutes later, little Nunu came in asking if dinner was ready. I told her it was and she ran out to get her Daddy and her sister. Then a minute later I heard her calling "You're taking a loooong time to get my dinner, Mommy." I came out to find her in her high chair waiting for me to serve her. She's only 2! Of course she didn't like the soup and I created a meal just for her with some rice noodles, broccoli, and just the soup broth. She wouldn't eat any of the veggies or the chicken. Booboo loved everything but the eggplant and mushrooms. I added some broccoli to her bowl too. Can't wait to reheat some tomorrow...

Mother's Day Feast

We decided to have a backyard barbeque at our new apartment for Mother's Day. The girls had regaled me with a handmade card and we spent the day at the beach at a 3 year old's birthday party. We were ready for some home time.

I stopped at Marukai, a Japanese member's only grocery store, and picked up some delicious looking sale items - Pacific Blue Prawns, fresh Mullet from Taiwan, Ewa sweet corn, and local zucchini. We didn't have any charcoal so we stopped to buy some and I impulsively bought a charcoal chimney. I remembered how Metta laboured over the barbeque to get the charcoal lit - we didn't believe in lighter fluid. I want to do more barbequing since the weather is getting hotter and cooking indoors heats up the house too much. So a chimney seemed like a perfect easy way to deal with the charcoal. Sure enough, Metta had a healthy fire going in minutes and was able to pull out his ukulele and sing fire songs to encourage the fire.

I was inspired to make kebobs as I felt it would be too hard to manage the veggies and shrimp just on the grill. I skewered shrimp with onion, zucchini and Hamakua Coast cocktail tomatoes. The kebobs were salted and dizzled with organic extra virgin olive oil. I also made some pure shrimp on a stick. If you know me, you know I love food on sticks. I simply salted the mullet and tucked a few bits of onion into the cavity. I wanted to taste the fish as cleanly as possible as I haven't had mullet before. As you can see, the skin crisped beautifully. It's a good fish to feed our 2 and 3 year old as the bones are not too small. You can easily see or feel them except for the meat near the collar where there were more small bones. We stuck to the belly and tail area for the girls. They devoured more than half the fish themselves.

I soaked the corn in it's husk in water for about 30 minutes. I grilled it until the outside husks were blackened - about 15 minutes. Then, the hot corn was rolled in organic butter for a delicious crisp corn on the cob. The kebobs jostled for space on the grill while the girls ate corn and mullet. Afterwards, there was plenty of heat so I pulled out a zucchini and 2 chicken breasts to roast. They were done beautifully and there were still plenty of coals left. Metta suggested roasting potatoes. I put 5 russet potatoes on the grill and turned them every 15 minutes or so til they were soft. Still plenty of coals left so I scoured my pantry. I ended up scooping all the coals to one side and putting 2 heads of garlic on. They started to burn so I put them off to the side and improvised a barbeque lid by putting my roasting pan lid on. They roasted near the coals for about an hours before I pulled them off. The food became the next nights dinner as Chinese Chicken salad and roasted garlic with pita chips. Yum.

Birthday Cookie

Metta's birthday is coming up in a few days and, since we baked Banana Oatmeal Cookies today, we made a giant cookie for Metta. We figured he'd rather have his birthday cookie early and fresh instead of a slightly stale cookie on his birthday. 2 year old Nunu proudly brought the cookie to Papa, telling him it was just for him but he had to eat his dinner first. Nunu returned with the platter minus a bite of cookie! I started grilling Nunu if she had eaten a bite. A voice called out "I'm only admiting to it because I don't want Nunu to be blamed!" I suppose that's a good dad...

We originally made Banana Oatmeal cookies (recipe from bakingbites.com) because we were celebrating Booboo's success at keeping her bed dry at night. It was a private baking party of three - myself, Booboo and Nunu. The girls were given a cookie each when the phone rang and I became engrossed in a real estate call. When I emerged, the girls had silly grins on their faces and the plate of cookies cooling on a rack held a single cookie. They had each swiped 3 or 4 cookies. I had a talk with them telling them that it was ok, they should have asked first, but if they didn't want to get in trouble they better not sugar crash. They gamely agreed and held their end of the bargain. The cookies are now kept out of reach on a high shelf.

Quick Pix

Weekend hash whipped up one groggy morning.  The husky, steamy view.

Second picture is the same weekend hash.

Third picutre is a Pork and Cabbage dinner - roast pork loin, roasted veggies with chinese cabbage (siu choy or won bok), pan-fried sliced baked potates, rice.

Fourth picture is one that I can't figure out how to delete.  Nor how to get the layout just right.  Oh well...

Cinco de Mayo... by accident

I rushed in the door at 7:02 p.m. with 2 hungry kids in tow.  Metta had been blissfully unaware that I wanted him to prep some stuff for dinner cuz his cell phone wasn't picking up a signal.  My original dinner plan went out the door as it involved too much chopping.  Frozen lasagne was out the door as it took too long.  As I had been driving home, the questions in my mind were "what's in my fridge?" and "how can I turn it into dinner asap?"

Leftover chicken, tortillas, cheese... became quesadillas with an organic grated carrot disguised as grated cheese.  Hey... I've got a 2 and a 3 year old.  Gotta sneak veggies in anyway I can.  The carrot added an awesome sweet dimension to the chicken and cheese combo.

A couple of avocados mashed up and mixed with some leftover salsa = guacamole.  I had wanted to make guac for last nights dinner with our veggie friend but I figured his Mexican wife makes it regularly and probably way better than I can.  But we had leftover organic Que Pasa chips imported from Canada.  Love Que Pasa ever since I worked across the street from their former location in Vancouver.  I went there regularly for lunch burritos that were huge, delicious and came with a fresh salsa all you can eat condiment station.  Sadly, they relocated to Richmond and stopped their deli counter and concentrated on chips.  However,  I'm so happy their chips are commonly sold in the grocery stores here in Hawaii.

I fixed a quick green salad with organic romaine lettuce, organic grated carrots, local cucumbers slices, and organic grape tomatoes with a leftover balsamic vinaigrette.  A meal of leftovers but delicious nonetheless.  It wasn't til later in the evening (while reading www.slashfood) that I realized today is Cinco de Mayo.  So our meal was a holiday meal!

Vegetarian Delight

We invited a friend over for dinner.  His wife is visiting her folks for a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, her folks live in Mexico City and she got on the airplane the evening before the swine flu episode hit the news.  So, he's been worried about her.  We thought he could use some company over a nice home cooked meal.

We are not vegetarians although both Metta and I have dabbled in vegetarianism.  Metta was a vegetarian until... the day BEFORE I met him!  So he can't blame me for his fall from vegetarianism.  I tried being a vegetarian for a couple of years about a decade ago.  I ended up being anemic.  Tried being a vegetarian for about 6 months a few years later - ended up anemic with vitamin B deficiency.  These days, I am allergic to most vegetarian protein sources - I can't eat beans at all - not just cuz they are the musical fruit either :(

So what to make for a nice dinner?  I had been craving baba ghanouj for a couple of months so that went on the menu immediately.  I had some black beans that I can't eat so why not foist em on the visiting vegetarian?  Our friend loves chips so the appy became chips and dip.  I decided to make up a recipe for the beans by making it into a South east Asian inspired black bean dip.  I blenderized a drained can of organic black beans, a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk, juice from half a lime, a bit of ewa sweet onion, salt and pepper, a squeeze of raw honey and a couple of handfuls of chopped cilantro.  Deeeelicious.  I tried a couple of bites and my allergies reared their ugly head a couple of hours later.

It was also the first time I made baba ghanouj.  I was able to find some local asian eggplants but not the bulbous oval variety.   I roasted the eggplants for about 15 minutes under the broiler, turning occasionally.  They could have used a little more time.  I had to do this in the middle of the night so that I didn't heat up the house.  There's been a heat wave here lately.  I curled them into a bowl and covered it to let em steam cook a little more.  

The next day, I put the eggplants in the food processor with some tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, ewa sweet onion, salt and pepper.  They were a little disappointing until I salted them liberally.   Yumyum. 

Dinner was gen-ji-mai rice, which is half brown rice, and seitan broccoli.  Gen-ji-mai rice is not as brown as brown rice but healthier and tastier than white rice.  I simply wok fried the seitan til golden with some onion, garlic and ginger and the broccoli.  A little soy sauce for flavouring and there it was.  A great veggie meal.  

I forgot about dessert though - Haagen Daz chocolate ice cream which tastes like sublime high end fudgsicles to me.  Oh well.

fg alert

Email to CC:

whats fg you say?

hmmmm... what animal do you love to torture so you can have its insides ripped out and seared to crispy perfection?

fg!

thass right - foie gras!!!!

i discovered your reason fer yer next visit. Duck and foie gras hot dog and french fries cooked in foie gras fat at Hank's Haute Dogs. Hank closed his high end frou frou restaurant to open this hot dog joint. i cant remember the name of the place... i tried a normal dog there and it was pretty good. i wanna try the lobster and scallop sausage there. Mebbe ill try the fg dog and tell u how it is.
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Of course if you know CC, you'd know she'll give it up anytime and anyday for Foie Gras. Me, I'm more of a husky, musky truffles and uni kinda gal.

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Response from CC:

WHAT!!! How much is this celestrial hot dog????? Try it and take pictures!!

I've been craving fg really bad lately. Probably because I've been on a self diagnosed Izakaya kick lately (I'm actually SICK of izakayas right now, but that will pass in a week) and so haven't been to any nice western restaurants.
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Yes, she is craving foie gras. Aren't we all? You can try it at Hank's Haute Dogs on Saturdays.

From their website:


The Hank’s Concept is built around the company’s principal, Henry Adaniya. As a prominent restauranteur he has promoted some of the highest profile chefs in the country. It is a venture founded on his entreprenurial spirit and love for food. Trio, his world-renowned restaurant, garnered hundreds of accolades and awards over the past twelve years. Now, in a bold move from the fine dining to a fast food arena, henry focuses on his family roots here in developing Hank’s Haute Dogs. The hot dog is an edible icon of this story that everyone can savor both in flavor and success.


324 Coral Street
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96813
ph. (808) ~ 532 ~ 4265
fax. (808) ~ 532 ~ 4266

2330 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
ph. (808) ~ 532 ~ 4265