Spicy Basil Eggplant Stir Fry

I was eager to make more stuff using the herbs that I’ve been growing since a few weeks ago. I’ve transplanted them into planter boxes and biggerr containers, but they are not looking too good. The basil looked especially yellow and weak. I got worried and went out to buy plant food and I’ve also been bugging Andy to go pick up some compost from the local recycling drop-off, but I don’t I’ll see that bag of compost until the first snowflake hits ground, hrrmmppphh!!

We’re going away to Mexico for 8 days on Monday, so we’ve been trying to use up all the vegetables that’s been sitting in the fridge for a while. This Thai inspired dish is a result of pure creativity, LOL! Use as much garlic and cili padi (bird’s eye chilli) that you want in this dish

Ingredients

• 2 Asian eggplant, cut to 2 inch long by 1/4 inch thick pieces
• handful of basil leaves, chopped
• Handful of curry leaves, removed from stems
• Garlic, minced
• Cili padi, minced
• Vegetable seasoning (e.g. Po Lo Ku brand)
• Salt
• White pepper powder
• Sugar

Method

1. Heat 5T of oil in a wok. Add minced garlic, cili padi, curry and basil leaves to the oil and fry until fragrant. Becareful not to burn the garlic.
2. Add eggplant to the wok and cook until translucent and soft. Add more oil if necessary. Eggplants are notorious for soaking up oil, like sponges, but don’t use too much oil because when it’s cooked, it will excrete the oil back out.
3. Season with vegetable seasoning, salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

Sengkuang with Hoisin Sauce Snack

I’ve mentioned that my parents are visiting from Malaysia. Everytime they come to visit, they are tasked to bring my sister and I suitcases full of Malaysian yummies. This time, there were 4 stuffed suitcases that were filled with food-stuff. One of them was sweet red “taucu” sauce, which is known as Hoisin sauce in Malaysia. This Hoisin (seafood) sauce is not the black type that is popular in US/Canada. See here for the American version. I cannot find the red taucu/hoisin sauce in this part of the world for the life of me!

“Taucu” is a fermented soy bean sauce. I suppose this one that I’ve used is red because of the type of bean used? I find it less salty compared to the brown “taucu” sauce that is usually used to cook fishes and pork. Leave it to the Chinese to come up with a gazillion of soy bean sauces, eh?

This is the ultimate healthy snack for me. It brings back fond memories of my primary school days when we rush out the school compound when the last bell rings to signify that school is out for the day. I believe that right outside each school in Malaysia has several junk food peddlers that tempt every school kid into buying snacks, which drove parents nuts because it would spoil the kid’s appetite for proper meals that are being served at home. Sometimes, there are houses opposite the school that take advantage of school kids too. A few of them had set up tables in front of their houses to sell snacks to children to make a few bucks for the day. I didn’t mind it as a kid, the more choices, the better!

Most of the snacks sold outside the school are wrapped in plastic, but there are some that are not, such as this “sengkuang” snack. It’s not exactly hygenic because the streets are dusty and buses and cars are usually lined up outside of school, waiting for the kids to be released from school. This is probably why the schools stations prefects (school student police, we call ‘em bulldogs) outside the school to take down names of students buying “makanan diluar” (outside food). Maybe a few kids of gotten food poisoning from the snacks, but not me Having prefects guarding the school compounds made it even more exciting for us to “curi-curi” (sneak) buy snacks, LOL!

Oh by the way, sengkuang is called jicama or yambean on this side of the world. My parents told me that it was turnip, they LIED to me for 28 years!

Ingredients

• Jicama, peeled and sliced to about 0.5cm thick
• Taucu manis (sweet red hoisin sauce)
• Sugar
• Ground peanut

Method

1. Spread taucu manis on one side of the sliced jicama.
2. Sprinkle sugar and ground peanut on top of the taucu merah. Use more ground peanut for added crunch.
3. What else, enjoy lah!

We’re back!

So, we’ve been gone all weekend to visit my sister in Fargo, ND in lieu of her graduation. It was a 16 hours drive one-way from here (Detroit, MI) with a few stops and traffic congestions. Needless to say, Andy and I are exhausted and still in daze after driving for over 900 miles each way.

My parents are also visiting from Malaysia, so I have not been able to blog or create any new dishes. My folks are selecting their menu from the entries on this blog, LOL! Anyway, I sure hope that you folks stay tuned although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to write much this week because we are getting ready to go to Mexico next week. I’ll be happy to answer any questions regarding any of my posts here.

Thanks for coming again!

The Organic Dilemma

Andy and I would like to buy more organic produce and enviromentally-friendly products but we have to admit that we feel the pinch everytime we check out at the cash register. At the moment, we are at about 70% organic consumers, but sometimes the pricetags are just horrendous for these organic stuff. 

One would think that if it’s a general consensus that organic is better for ALL OF US, then why aren’t the people who make these stuff helping us out by not causing sticker shock everytime we go grocery shopping? These decisions really gnaw at our conscience, because if we spend the extra money to buy organic, then our wallet feels the pinch. Meanwhile if we don’t buy organic, then subconsciously we think that we are poisoning ourselves. Nonetheless, to make it easy on ourselves these days we subscribe to the THINK GLOBAL, BUY LOCAL motto to support another important cause, i.e. to reduce our carbon footprints

To illustrate our point, here are two articles that I’d like to share. Much has been written about this on the WWW also.

Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles

Eating Better than Organic (thanks to Danielle of MapleSyrupandPoutine for sharing this with me)

What about you? How do you deal with this issue (if it is an issue for you)?