Sunday, September 30, 2012

Okay, life is still good, in spite of...life

It's funny how life can still be good even when weird, frustrating things keep happening.

My injured foot a few weeks ago turned out to be a broken bone. Two of them, actually. Which I managed to acquire by tripping over, I dunno, a microscopic piece of lint on my carpet. As opposed to valiantly rescuing a band of baby quails from a speeding car or something.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Spicy Eggplant - attempt I

I really miss a wonderful Thai dish I used to have, some spicy eggplant that was simply amazing.

I've been fiddling with various methods of recreating a flavor that might be comparable, or at least comparable based on what I remember, and yesterday I got closer than I ever had before.

It was fairly simple. I stir-fried sliced japanese eggplant, and then cooked it with this sauce:

Fake Spicy Thai Sauce (Work-in-Progress):
Apple juice (homemade, so I don't know if the taste changes)
roasted eggplant, peeled and blended up with a little of the apple juice
crushed tepin chiles
sea salt
a little fresh lemon juice

This was spicy, sweet, and a little sour. Not quite right, yet. There's something missing. But it was much closer than I've managed before. I need something for that umami taste, and the roasted eggplant was the best so far, as I can't use mushroom, soy sauce, or coconut aminos. I'm thinking perhaps I could add some roasted tomato, too, just a little bit, and see how that goes, next time. :-)