Cookish: What's for dinner?

Asian Eggplant Stir-fry

Ingredients

1 shallot, chopped or thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

vegetable oil

sesame oil

about 3 cups chopped eggplant (about 1/2 medium eggplant)

1-2 cups sugar snap peas

1 carrot, sliced

1 tsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp chili-garlic sauce (could be increased)

1 tbp soy sauce

1 tsp hoisin

splash water

Cooked rice, for serving (I used brown rice, but white or jasmine would also be good)

Put a pan over medium-high heat and add the vegetable oil to coat. Begin sauteeing the chopped shallot until it begins to caramelize. Add the garlic and the eggplant and stir-fry until the eggplant begins to brown and soften. After a few minutes, add the carrots, followed by the sugar snap peas. Stir together the oyster sauce, chili-garlic sauce, soy, hoisin, and water. Add the sauce mixture to the pan, cover, and allow the eggplant to cook for 5 additional minutes. Test for doneness, and serve over rice!

The amount I made was determined by the size of my pan, but if you have a bigger pan, you could make more, or do the sauteeing in 2 batches.

Bookish Review: Guardian of the Gate

Guardian of the Gate is Book 2 in the Prophecy of the Sisters Trilogy (Series?) by Michelle Zink. The first book is also reviewed on this site.

I actually liked this book better than the first. Perhaps it was because I didn't expect the 1st one to be a part of a series, so I was annoyed with the lack of closure. This time, I knew what to expect.

The second book picks up with Lia's quest to end the prophecy and stop her evil twin. She has been in England, trying to strengthen her powers and find the other keys. Alice is also only getting stronger. This book also brings a new love interest, though Lia has not forgotten about James. Lia takes on a new mantle as well, as she becomes next in line as Lady of Altus after the aunt passes away. She will not make her final decision on that until the prophecy is resolved. however. So, the quest continues.

This book doesn't move the action along that much, but it is a pretty fun read.

Full disclosure: I picked up a complimentary review copy of this book at a conference, courtesy of the publisher.

Bookish Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love follows Elizabeth Gilbert in her world journey to find herself. First, she spends months in Italy, eating her way through the country, learning the melodic language, and immersing herself in the culture. Next, she travels to India to live in an ashram and practice yoga and meditation. Gilbert already practices yoga and already has a guru when she goes to the ashram (it is the guru's ashram, though she is not there at the same time). Finally, she spends months in Indonesia, trying to find balance, and spending time with a funny, happy medicine man she met years prior.

When Gilbert starts this quest, her life is in a shambles and she is trying to recover from an ugly divorce. She luckily finds a publisher who basically wants to fund her quest around the world in exchange for a book about it (I'll take that deal, if anyone wants to offer. The countries and timeline are negotiable. Let me know.)

The journey is interesting and Gilbert does have some enlightening moments. She also has some annoying moments and can come off as a whiner with little reason to whine. Overall, it is an interesting read, though what I really came away with was "Why doesn't someone pay me to do that?"

Cookish: What's for dinner?

Pad Kee Mao

(Adapted from Chow.com: http://www.chow.com/recipes/11087-pad-kee-mao-spicy-ground-chicken-and-rice-noodles?tag=recipes;feature_recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 (14-ounce) package wide rice noodles
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2 limes)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 3 carrots, sliced on the bias
• a handful or two of shelled edamame
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 medium jalapeño peppers, thinly sliced (I seeded one and left the seeds in the other to temper the heat,but you could probably leave the seeds in both. It wasn't very hot)
• 1 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves

Directions

Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for about 15 minutes, until loose and pliable but not soft; drain and set aside. Meanwhile, combine oyster sauce, fish sauce, and lime juice, mix well, and set aside. (It is easy to do this in a measuring cup. Pour in 1/4 of fish sauce; add enough oyster sauce to get to the 1/2 cup mark, and then add enough lime to get to 3/4 cup.)

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. An 11-in pan is the biggest I have, but it's a bit small for this, so I had to make some adaptations. Once the pan is heated, add shallots and garlic and half the jalapeno and cook for 2 minutes or until softened but not brown. Add ground chicken and break into small pieces. Cook until chicken is white and almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add carrots, edamame, and the other jalepeno, and stir-fry just until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Remove some chicken mixture to a large bowl, and move the rest to the edges of the pan and add eggs to the center. Scramble with a spatula until eggs are set and don’t run, about 1 minute. Remove eggs to the large bowl and add reserved sauce mixture. Once the sauce is boiling, add the drained noodles and toss to coat. Once coated, add to the large bowl and toss with the other ingredients, including the basil. Serve immediately. Yum!

My adaptations make this less authentic, but it still tastes good

Bookish Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This book received a ton of press, so I was anxious to read it, though I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know, for example, that it is an epistolary novel. I probably would have been reluctant to read it, had I known, since I am always wary of books written entirely in letters, but my fears were quickly assuaged. The story is intriguing and keeps you turning pages (it might even make you want to write a letter!). The main character is a writer searching for inspiration in Britain after WWII. She stumbles upon a friendship with the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and goes to the island to visit, learning about the islanders' war experience along the way. It's a very interesting and touching story, and the letters reveal a lot about the characters writing them and being written about. Recommended.

Cookish: Snacktime

This salsa was inspired by a creation of my dear friend, Clare.

1 can black beans

1 can chickpeas

1 can corn

1 serrano chile

1 medium tomato

1/4 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves

olive oil

lime

pepper

salt

Drain & rinse the beans and drain the corn; mix them all together. Core & quarter the tomato. squeeze out the seeds. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Put the chopped onion, garlic cloves (unpeeled), quartered tomato, and serrano chile (with the stem end chopped off) on a foil-line baking sheet or cake pan. drizzle with olive oil and salt & pepper and put in the oven for about 25 minutes. Remove the garlic (if soft), tomatoes, & chile. I roast the onions for about 10 minutes more, but that is up to you. Put the tomatoes & chile in a bowl and cover with saran wrap for 5-10 minutes. This will make the skin easier to remove. Remove the skin and chop the tomatoes, chile, and garlic together. Add to the beans and corn, along with the onion and olive oil used to roast the veggies. Add the juice of 1/2 the lime and some lime zest, along with salt and pepper to taste. Fridge to meld the flavors. Yum! Eat with chips, or on a salad, or on fish tacos, like I did! You could certainly add more tomatoes or onions to your taste, but the one chile does add uite a bit of heat, so be careful upping that! You could even remove some of the seeds if you are worried about it being too hot.

Bookish Review: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine

This is the 5th book in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation Series, and it follows along in the same formula as the others. All of the books are told on two levels: on one, Eloise, modern-day grad student and researcher and on the other, her latest discovery in her research. Eloise is dating a very handsome Brit who is descended from the very spies she is researching for her dissertation. In this volume, Eloise uncovers the story of Charlotte, a friend of some of the other ladies she has studied, and her distant cousin Robert. They, of course, fall in love and discover a plot to kidnap the king in the meantime!

These books are fun and fluffy, quite a quick read, and always have a happy ending. Good fun.