Just a little tricky dish to get the little one to eat his proteins. Saw this recipe online which was thought up by a mom who was also trying to get her child to eat a variety of food. It’s not easy being a mum of a toddler, really. It could be a battle with tofu one day, meat another, and then of course, the ongoing cold war with the ever devilish vegetables, especially the stalky and stemy and leafy ones.
The previous round I tried cooking brinjals, it was using a simple recipe that followed closely to a canteen food that I used to eat at work back then. This Asian style brinjal recipe uses dark soy sauce, chilli and oyster sauce to braise the brinjals. For a change, I decided to cook brinjals this time round in the Sichuan style with salted fish, minced pork and black vinegar. This is one dish that I could never resist ordering when I am at the local Chinese restaurants because the chefs are so capable of getting it right every time, with very nicely marinated minced pork and very well-braised and soft brinjal chunks.
It has been a busy four months. Last week was the peak of what we have all been working towards – it was crazy, and we barely managed. I didn’t get to see the boy for almost three days last week and I missed him like crazy.
The Japanese Azuki red beans (also referred to as Adzuki breans), literally transliterated as ‘small beans’ are the smaller cousins of the larger soy beans. They are popularly used in Asian and Chinese cuisines to cook desserts and sweet soups such as the more common red bean soup and sweet soup with red bean balls. The Japanese have lots of snacks and sweets that make use of Azuki red bean pastes, such as our favourite daifuku, anpan and dorayaki. Though a tad too sweet for my almost middle-aged tastebuds, they never fail to look tempting and captivating everytime I pass by these sweets at the Japanese supermarkets.
A simple stir-fry of noodles with a few simple ingredients for a simple weekend meal at home.
