black beans

My mom handed me a small bag of snow peas from her garden. I decided that it would be perfect with some of the fish fillets D brought back from his fishing trip.

fish with snow peas in black bean sauce
My mom also makes this super spicy, black bean sauce. I used some of that, chopped together with garlic and ginger, and sauteed the fish and snow peas together. It was a nice combination of fresh and funky.
[rockfish fillets, snow peas, fermented black beans, chili, garlic, ginger, oil]

fishing

D went fishing and managed to catch the biggest fish on the boat. This is what we did with it the next day.

steamed fish with ginger and scallions
One of D's dreams is to eat a whole steamed fish by himself. So, he had to share with my parents, and my high school friend, E, but there was still more than enough to go around. My parents pointed out that this would have been about $70 worth of fish in a restaurant. I didn't have a big enough pan for it, so I improvised with a roasting pan and foil and steamed it on the stovetop. My mom coached me through the whole process.
[whole fish, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, water, oil]

guest chef series #10: good home cooking

I love that my mom can whip up a 4-course Chinese meal in no time. We went over for dinner, and had hamachi, miso soup with hamachi (not shown), shrimp and snow peas, and beef and spinach.

mom's cooking
What's even more awesome is that she grew the snow peas herself. Everything was really good, as always. She's always embarrassed by her plating, but I think it looks great. She keeps such good color in her veggies, and of course, how it tastes is really what counts.


Beef with Sa-cha Sauce and Spinach
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 lb beef, cut into strips (any tender cut will do—ribeye, skirt steak)
- 3 tbsp sa-cha sauce (a Chinese sauce labeled as bbq sauce, but is nothing like American bbq sauce. It contains brill shrimp.)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2–3 slices ginger
- 1 lb spinach
- 1 tsp cornstarch plus 1/4 cup water (optional)

Combine beef, soy sauce, sa-cha sauce, garlic, and ginger in a large bowl. Let marinate 30 minutes. Heat a wok on high heat. Add oil, swirl until hot. Add the meat, and stir fry until cooked. Add the spinach, and stir fry together until spinach is wilted. Add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, if desired. Serve with rice.
[hamachi; soup: hamachi, miso, tofu, green onions, water; shrimp and snow peas: snow peas, shrimp, yellow peppers, garlic, oil; beef and spinach: beef, spinach, sa-cha sauce, soy sauce, pepper]

ma-po eggplant

As more of the Curry House bounty, some sort of packaged ma-po tofu sauce was included. I thought I might as well try it out, and I had already prepped the eggplants, so I thought we might as well combine the two.

ma-po eggplant
Overall, the sauce was unoffensive, but it did have a weird consistency to it. It's definitely not as good as making your own sauce, and really, not that much more convenient. Let's say I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase it. But it's good enough in a pinch.
[eggplant, tofu, onions, garlic, ginger, oil, Curry House ma-po tofu sauce, mild]

Christmas Dinner

We spent Christmas in England with my brother an his family. Since air tickets were cheapest flying a red-eye on the 24th, we arrived mid-afternoon on Christmas day. In our family, there's no better meal after a long flight than hot pot, so we had a very enjoyable evening together dipping things into hot soup.

hot pot
Hot pot is great for groups because there's very little prep involved. Just boil some water, and everyone just cooks and eats as they want. Traditional ingredients include sliced meat, any sort of leafy vegetable, fish cakes, squid, shrimp, and anything else you can boil. Our family uses a raw egg, soy sauce, and sa cha (I think it's some sort of brill shrimp sauce/paste) as the dipping base.
[thinly sliced pork and beef, tofu, fish cakes, veggies, egg, sa cha, soy sauce, water]

bittermelon

This is one of the more baffling foods on the planet. It's intensely bitter, yet people seem to love it. My mom grows these beautiful white ones (they're usually a light green color.)

bittermelon with black bean & garlic sauce
I'm actually not the biggest fan of bittermelon, but D really loves it. But, if you put enough black bean and garlic sauce on something, it will be good, even if it's got a bitter undertone.
[bittermelon, black beans, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, water, cornstarch]

chinese sausage
These are really tasty, sweet sausages. They're a fresh variation of the dried Cantonese lop cheung.