On Saturday, Leilani and I went to a brunch-pool-party at Adam and Aditi’s new house. So we had an early lunch. After getting home, Leilani napped and we played together most of the afternoon, so we were getting hungry for dinner. Most of this week has been simple meals, but now there were some vegetables to eat up soon. So I put Leilani in front of the DVD player a bit early (usually she gets to watch after dinner and after getting ready for bed, and only if she’s been good most of the day) so I could do some cooking.
Whenever I want to use lots of veggies, I usually make my Chinese-inspired stir fry. But I still wanted it to go quick, so I sliced everything in the food processor (carrots, turnips, okra, turnip and chard stems, onion, eggplant, turnip and chard leaves). In fact, everything but the garlic that I put in the hand press, and I left out the ginger because I couldn’t do it in the processor. I even did my express method: process and start the longest cooking veggies first, and process the next ones while remembering to stir occasionally (there is a bit more charring this way, but it does add to the flavor, so it helps to use lots of oil).
Actually, there were so many veggies that I had to start it in two skillets, and then I just decided to do two separate dishes. So to the onions, eggplant, leaves and garlic, I added my char siu mix (char siu (Chinese BBQ sauce) from a jar, with water, soy sauce, and corn starch). To the carrots, turnips, okra, and stems, I added black bean sauce (from a jar), water, soy sauce, and a little experiment with plum wine that just happened to be in a glass next to the chopping board. And I even remembered to start the rice earlier, so it was all ready in less than 30 minutes.
Leilani loved it, even the slightly bitter turnips, and I have to admit it was really good. Nothing makes you feel better than a toddler gobbling up the veggies you spent time cooking, especially with all those Chinese spices.
Except maybe when she sees the leftovers in the fridge the next day and asks for that instead of the noodles and peas she originally wanted–and then eats it with just as much pleasure.