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Day 47: Chinese Eggplant

Well, Italian eggplant.  But cooked in a Chinese-style preparation.  Eggplant fusion!

Spicy Black Bean Eggplant with Tofu
This was an improv dinner to use up some onions and eggplant cubes left over from prep, and a brick of tofu that was in its last week.
If you've not tried it before, freezing tofu is magic.  It completely changes the texture, opening up holes and making the marinade soak right in. Read more about the technique here!  I mixed up a little bit of low sodium soy, garlic, ginger, a squeeze of honey, and toasted sesame oil.  I scooped it over the pieces of tofu on a sheet, and baked for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  

The sauce on the eggplant was seriously rich and delicious.  While the tofu cooked, I riffed a spicy black bean sauce with low sodium soy, fermented black beans, chili oil, and some water. First, I fried up the eggplant in some vegetable oil until soft and slightly scorched, then removed it to the plate.  Then I fried diced white onion and red bell pepper until soft, stirred in some garlic & ginger until fragrant, and added the eggplant back in.  Once everything was nicely melded, I poured on the sauce and cooked for about 5 minutes until the sauce was all soaked up. At the end, I tossed in some sliced green onion and sprinkled sesame seeds on top.  Served with tofu piled on.  Yum!

Roast Beef Sandwich
This was a pared down version of the delicious Thursday dinner.  I toasted a big slice of sourdough, spread it with rest of the garlic mayo, stacked on the remaining roast beef, and found one lonely piece of muenster that got nice and bubbly under the broiler.  Finished with some lettuce and an apple.  Yum!
Raisin Bran with Banana
Our Tour of Cereal continues... with good old Post Raisin Bran. When I was younger, I'm pretty sure I would also add more sugar to this.  How tastes change!  It was a delicious start to the day before a long run of meetings.
Today flew by, and the food was great. Onward!

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