My son called during the week and asked if we had a plan for the upcoming Sunday Roast. Not surprisingly, especially after a very long week – we did not so his suggestion of Mabo Tofu was a good one. Mabo Tofu is one of my favorite dishes and not one that I can get in most Chinese restaurants, at least in this area and done “right”, so I learned to make it myself. When they were kids, it would be our main dish for a weeknight dinner but with five of us and for a Sunday Roast, I decided to make two other dishes as well. Not quite a “feast” but a selection. Dessert was, of course, my Heart’s creation!
We had asparagus on hand so I decided on chicken with asparagus. My daughter was nice enough to sous chef for me. She cut the asparagus in 1″ pieces – I put them in a skillet covered in water, brought them to a boil, turned off the heat and covered the pan for about 5 minutes so that they were still tender. Boneless chicken breast was thinly sliced. The sauce was a combination of shoyu, garlic, mirin, chicken broth, and cornstarch (for thickening)
I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I made the Mabo Tofu but it turned out ok – not my best. Ground pork sauce, browned then the sauce: shoyu, fresh red pepper paste, chicken broth (I like for there to be a lot of sauce so I add extra broth), a sprinkling of powdered ginger, and corn starch for thickening. There was also supposed to be chopped green onions – which my daughter had chopped but I completely forgot to add.
The last dish was a ginger beef with thinly sliced red & green peppers, onion, round steak, and fresh ginger. The sauce was shoyu, Hoisin and cornstarch – very simple and basic.
Everything served with steamed Asian sticky rice. Everyone seemed to enjoy all three dishes… I think I held my own against the local takeout Chinese!
Dessert was delicious: peach cobbler with dolce de leche ice cream. Absolutely Perfect finish – YUM