Sunday: Asian

Since we didn't get a biokiste last week, we don't have a big pile of veggies to work through, so Andrea requested we do some Asian.

One dish was beef rendang, following the recipe from BittmanWorld. The results were good, but not as good as I was hoping for. Part of the problem was that the cut of beef I used (mager Siedfleisch) didn't attain the "shreddy" texture I was hoping for after 2+ hours of cooking. The final result also wasn't as dry as I was expecting, but that was probably user error. Ah well.

The vegetable dish was going to be a stir fry, but the Asian market had a pretty thin selection of appealing fresh vegetables, pretty much only the okra looked reasonable, so I ended up doing a dish playing with textures:

Rinse and drain some canned straw mushrooms, cut them in half, and then cook them, cut-side down, over medium-high heat with a bit of peanut oil until they have shrunken some and the flat sides are browned. Set the mushrooms aside.

Slice okra into pieces 1cm long, toss them with salt and corn starch, and then cook in peanut oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Add some minced garlic and ginger, a spoonful of chili-bean sauce, a splash each of black vinegar and xiao xing wine, a bit of water, the mushrooms, and some quartered water chestnuts. Toss well and heat until the mushrooms and chestnuts are warmed through.

My goal - three very different textures - was achieved, and the flavor combination was a good one. I ought to do more with okra.

We ate both the above with jasmine rice.