Friday, July 11, 2008

First Vegetable of the Season!

From my garden, that is (we have had vegetables from my in-laws' gardens for a few months now). Check out this eggplant!



It's a Japanese eggplant, so it is supposed to be long and skinny like that. The flesh is firmer (come on, someone jump in with a joke!) and less likely to get seedy. Now, I have to tell you - I planted the eggplant for one reason and one reason only...

Mabo Nasu! (Okay, I have no clue what Mabo means - Asami? But nasu is the Japanese word for eggplant.)



I first found this stuff when I was in Japan and it quickly became one of my favourite foods. And I am lucky enough to have a few good Korean grocery stores nearby that keep a decent selection of Japanese foods as well. You will notice on the box it says minced pork - I go with ground beef instead. I know the picture on the box has peas and carrots as well as the eggplant - but I put garlic and zucchini in with mine. Saute the vegetables in a little oil until soft, add the beef, cook until not pink, add the sauce, and simmer for a while. Start cooking the rice, add some unsalted roasted cashews to the eggplant mix, and serve when the rice is ready.

Then feast.



It is so yummy! The eggplant and zucchini make it go a long way - there are 4 portions in it and I only used half pound of ground beef. Of course, Willow eats all the cashews first and then starts on everything else. If you can find this in your local Asian market, buy it and try it out - it's easy and tasty.

5 comments:

Lee said...

That egg plant is amazing. Next to the large kitchen knife, I originally thought it was a short sword.

Bezzie said...

Woo hoo! Cool!!! I'm not a fan of eggplant myself...it was the last food I threw up. So it's on my do-not-eat list.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking you should be brining a couple packages of that stuff up with you when we all get together....

turtlegirl76 said...

Long and firm and spills very little seed. Now THAT sounds ideal.

Jo said...

Thank you, Cristi!