Last August hump day, 8-28 2024 - Anything good today?

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pepperhead212

Master Chef
Joined
Nov 21, 2018
Messages
5,332
Location
Woodbury, NJ
Today I made one of my absolute favorite dishes, that I was craving recently - that Szechwan eggplant dish. I just bought some cheap pork loin, and ground it all up - only had to trim a little over 8 oz of thick fat off one - the rest, were so thin with fat, they wouldn't even be good for sausage! I saved a pound, from the 10+ lbs of ground pork, for the eggplant dish.
The rest I sealed in the Foodsaver bags, 4 half pound, a 12 oz, and the rest 1 lb bags.

I made a double recipe today (as usual), and I used a very large amount of garlic chives, and about a half cup of regular chives, in place of chopped scallions - not traditional, but works great in these things, and I have large amounts of those things out there. And in place of the minced garlic and ginger, I start most of these dishes with, I start with that garlic/ginger paste, I keep in the freezer, mostly for Indian dishes, but I start the oil at a lower heat, then add the Szechwan chili/garlic paste first, then the garlic/ginger paste, and the Szechwan peppercorns and whole peppers, to keep that from browning too quickly. After choking temporarily, I added the meat mix, cooked that about 2 min, then added the eggplant, and SFd that about 2 min, added the sugar, and SFd another 2 min. Then I stirred in 3/4 c water, and loosened anything off the wok, covered, and cooked on medium, stirred a couple of times, for 13 minutes.

Meanwhile, I put about 3½ qts of water on to boil on Sauté/high in the Instant Pot (puts out less heat, which I'm doing enough in that wok!), and when I cover that eggplant, I put in a little salt for the pasta, put about 20 oz of pasta (a good amount for this dish, as you'll see), set it to boil for just 2 minutes, then stop it, and cook it 6 more minutes, then drain it, and rinse it.

When the eggplant is finished, I rinse the pasta briefly (to add a little more water), then dump in on top of the EP, and SF it another minute or so, to absorb the sauce. After a large helping (!) I have a 2 qt and a 1 qt container of leftovers! The kind of things I often eat for breakfast!
About 3 c of garlic chives and and regular chives, in place of scallions, for the Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Other ingredients ready for the Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The ground pork, with the chives, soy, and sesame oil, cooking with the garlic, ginger, and hot ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A little over 2 lbs of eggplant, cooking with the meat and seasonings, sugar added the last two minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the pasta, ready to fold in finished Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Szechwan eggplant dish, mixed into spiral pasta. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
Tovala meals of chicken parm and stuffed shells.

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I was going to have the rest of the lentil soup. I had covered it and stored it in the fridge in the can. But, I didn't like the way it smelled of can, so I didn't have that. I guess I need to put it in a glass or plastic container another time I want to try saving half.

Anyhoo, I had the planned ham sandwich. I also had a dolma. It had been in the fridge, in a can, longer than the soup, but it was fine. I'll have to have something more to eat a bit later.
 
Living on Leftovers, LOL, green bean squash peaches dish from yesterday. The end of the chocolate pie, dang that was so good. Watermelon (they are on sale again, yippee)
 
I decided to make stuffed shells but with a twist. Instead of spaghetti sauce I used Alfredo sauce. It sounds good, but it tastes kind of bland and I think I know why.

Tomatoes and cheese always go together and I have a lot of cheese in this thing, but no tomato sauce. So now I'm trying to figure out how to make it taste a little better. I have 32oz of Ricotta cheese, a cup of Parmesan, two cups of Mozzarella, and a cup of cheddar in the mix, more Parmesan and some basil on top. So it needs a complimenting flavor. For some reason, I was wishing I had crab meat to put on top.
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