Faux Pho

Its been a hell of a month, and it doesn't look like our summer is headed in direction that we had hoped. I'm working on a side project, trying to get it up and running before all the summer produce slips away from my fingers, and running myself in two directions. The man, who broke his ankle a few weeks ago and is awaiting a second surgery does a surprisingly large amount of 'the dirty work' keeping the kitchen, and the rest of the house running...and now that he's laid up for at least another month....Well lets just say I'm desperately clinging to the idea that he'll be magically healed in a week...
When he came home from the hospital the first time I had promised him whatever made him feel better would be dinner...cut to Eggs Benedict with hollandaise that was almost clear, takeout Chinese, and a mess of other kitchen horrors that look appetizing... until you bite into them and realize I've been so tired that I forgot salt...on everything.

But tonight, I was on my game...probably has something to do with having yesterday off and doing very little. Tonight I took what remained of the leftover ground beef from burgers we (ahem, my father) grilled on July 4th and made little ginger and beef meatballs, I thinly sliced pea pods from Allandale Farm and cabbage from Two Fields Farm and sauteed it in the wok. I simmered vegetable broth with ginger and garlic and a chile, and after the meatballs got a quick browning, they went into the vegetable studded broth to simmer. Flat Chinese egg noodles sparingly dressed in toasted sesame oil made little nests that cradled the meatballs (more like little meat dumplings, without dough, really) and swam with the broth. I topped it off with some of our very own cilantro and a super finely chopped garlic scape. Rose was poured and we ate before it got dark. I was the winner. The dish reminded me a little of the Pho we used to eat years ago when we lived by the beach. It was pretty easy and more importantly satisfying,(when you aren't eating on a regular schedule, sometimes salad will not cut it for dinner, even if its eighty degrees...besides that's why we have air conditioning)

These are the kind of nights I look forward to, when lunches are packed and the vegetable garden is watered and I live in (feigned) ignorance about the fact that there is not a single clean towel in the house.

I may be tired and not very good company but I'm still cooking.... More...

Lettuce Wraps

Do you ever have trouble finding the words to make someone understand something? I feel like my life is a series of those moments lately. I must brush up on the english language...or whatever.


I made the lettuce wraps a WEEK AGO after eating some sort of nasty ones at a bar / restaurant that will go un-named. It was in Cambridge, but that is all I will say. Also the service was terrible, its like it would have killed the waitress and the bartender to smile...but anyway, lettuce wraps! they are super easy and delicious! and they are like asian tacos...its a beautiful thing really when you can eat a lettuce taco filled with charred (from the grill pan!) chicken -or tofu, ahem- thats had a bath in spicy, chili laced peanut sauce.

there. i put some words out...thats a step in the right direction! whew!


see you soon.

xo-elle. More...

Hot & Sour Eggplant (and Noodles)

There are a million and one things to do with an eggplant. When you come from my family, with my half Sicilian, all Italian father, immediate thoughts go to eggplant parmesan. Thick rounds of eggplant cozied up to a half a gallon on tomato sauce (laced with olives, obviously) and blanketed in enough romano (pronounced 'rrrrrromano') to make your hand cramp over the grater. Delicious and comforting as eggplant parmesan is (and never actually made with parmesan in my house, oddly enough...)

Its not 'summer-y'. It makes me have to turn the oven on. When its eighty-odd degrees, I do my best to not turn on the oven.

On top of that, while Italian food is where I am most comfortable; the man did not grow up with a ‘Nonna’, or an Easter dinner that involved spaghetti and antipasto before the requisite turkey or ham. The man’s favorite flavors are decidedly Asian: ginger, chilies, wasabi, and recently, anything in a peanut sauce garner more affection than anything else that comes out of the kitchen.

It is the mans love of Asian food that had pushed me to the food-focused internet in the first place. In search of wasabi glazed salmon for a birthday dinner when we were both too poor to go out. I drove down to Cape Cod from my North of Boston apartment with a grocery bag of wasabi powder, mirin, and bok choy and a print out from the internet with full intentions of impressing the man. I’m pretty sure I undercooked that salmon, and after it was plated it had to be re-wrapped in foil and put back in the oven...

Asian food is not always my biggest success, but I have come a long way from that misguided salmon dinner, and some variation of stir fry or another Asian dish makes the menu once a week in our kitchen. This dish is a riff on hot and sour Schezuan eggplant. Same sauce, more things to sit in it.

Hot & Sour Eggplant with Noodles

1 medium sized eggplant, or 2 skinny chinese eggplant, cubed

2 small heads of bok choy, cleaned and roughly choped

1 medium white onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, cut into strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon grated ginger (admittedly this is from a jar, if you use fresh, use a teaspoon)
1 tablespoon chili paste (I cheated here and used 2 tablespoons of sriracha, I was out of chili paste)

2 teaspoon cornstarch

salt

vegetable oil

1 package of your favorite rice or wheat noodles, prepared to package instructions
 
Place the eggplant cubes onto a large plate, and sprinkle with salt, let them sit for 20 minutes while you open your mail and gape at the electric bill. Rinse well, and drain on paper towels. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, red wine vinegar, sugar, chile paste, cornstarch, and ginger. Set the sauce aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the eggplant until it softens and begins to brown, 5ish minutes. Add the onions, bell pepper, and the bok choy. Cook them together with the eggplant for another 2-3 minutes, until your bok choy is wilted ever-so-slightly. Pour in the sauce, and cook and stir until the sauce is thick and the eggplant is evenly coated.

You could put this atop a lovely nest of noodles at this point, or if you're me you can add the noodles to your vegetable mixture, give a quick stir and then eat the whole mess with chopsticks, cross-legged at the kitchen table while the man makes you laugh so hard white wine comes out of your nose...you know, whatever you prefer. More...