M Is For Malanga. I Is For Ichiban. T Is For Tamarind.

M is for Malanga.
And what is malanga, you ask?
Well, here it is.

Mr. Hawthorne and I were at Harris Teeter the other day and I, of course, was looking for food items I'd never had before. In this case, I picked Malanga and Yuca Root.
I carried these unusual roots over to Mr. H's cart, deposited them, and asked him,
"How would you like some malanga and yuca?"
He responded with, "No-uh."
Anyways, back to the malanga, I decided to try the recipe offered on the back of the tag for
malanga chips.

This root is a bitch to peel.

Even harder to slice.
Now, I just read the above recipe for chips for the first time.
I followed the recipe on the attached tag.
It didn't say to "slice paper thin."
That would have made a BIG difference, I think.

I sliced as best I could, fried the slices, then salted and peppered.

The flavor was nutty.
The too thick texture was kind of like eating a tree.
Very fibrous.
Would have been better had I sliced it paper thin.
Mr. Hawthorne liked it though.

Next, I got out my cucumber, sweet potato, and squash slices which I'd left in the coconut milk batter. Apparently, coconut milk left in the fridge hardens up, like ice cream.

But these pieces of veggies fried up very nicely.

Here's our lunch today.
Mr. Hawthorne had to have soft shells again.
As he says, "It's just a short season, so I'm taking advantage of it."
Fried tile fish is to the left.
Tile fish is plentiful now.
It's very sweet, light, and delicious.
At the bottom, I have my dips:
Tartar sauce (Mayo with minced dill and sweet relish), my Thai dip (with peanuts, honey, vinegar, cucumber, green onions, and red pepper flakes), a honey mustard dip, and tomatilla salsa.

Soft shell on the left, with Tartar sauce and honey mustard sauce,
tile fish at top,
and fried veggie at right, with Thai dipping sauce.

This is the tile fish.
Mr. Hawthorne prepares it by removing the pin bones with small pliers, then he eggs the fillets, then dredges them in seasoned flour and fries, expertly I might add.
The fish is light, sweet, and delicious.

And that was our lunch.
After lunch, we went out to the pool for an hour or two to play with Dixie.
I do my laps, and Mr. Hawthorne tosses one of Dixie's toys for her to jump in and catch in mid-air. She's quite good at this. I'll have to video tape it for you. Mr. H. tells her to jump and when she does, he tosses the toy up in the air. Dixie has a bead on that toy. She adjusts her body however she needs to to catch it. Every.Single.Time.

Late afternoon.
Storm brewing.

I love the clouds.

They change quickly.

Whoa!
Check out the willow tree blowing.
Crap is flying all over the deck.

White caps in the canals.

It was very hard to shoot pictures since I was experiencing gusts up to 60 mph.
And I know a 60 mph gust when I feel it.
Look at my poor sunflowers being blown over the pool fence.

Notice the wind blowing the sheets of water.

We had to move our 200+ pound grill to the protected south side of the house, since the Northwest winds were blowing it all over the place.

Intense winds.
A lovely afternoon storm.
Now, on to dinner.

One of my offerings is Spicy Eggplant in Ginger Tamarind Sauce.

Here's my mise en place:

The spices on the left are:
ground coriander
cayenne
cumin
cinnamon
cloves
salt
mustard seeds

I also have Tamarind Nectar, molasses, coconut, cornstarch, shredded fresh ginger, garlic and the main ingredient: Ichiban Eggplant from my garden.

Mr. Hawthorne and I went to Wal Mart today and I bought 6 little hard plastic condiment cups.
98 cents each.
I likey.

Here's the tamarind nectar.
We both tasted it and decided it tasted like a combination of peach, apricot, and pear.

First, I heated up some vegetable oil, added garlic, and fried for maybe 30 seconds.
You never want to over fry your garlic, or, God forbid, burn it.
Overdoing garlic makes it bitter.
If you do that, throw it all out and start over.

Next, I added the coriander, cinnamon, and cloves and stirred for 15 seconds.

Stirred in the coconut and cayenne and continued frying for about 2 minutes, until the coconut was lightly toasted.

Added in the molasses.

Added in the tamarind nectar.

I took my Ichiban eggplants and sliced them down to the stem end.
I scooped out a bit of a tunnel inside.

Then stuffed them with the coconut mixture.

And tied them up.

If you noticed above, I drained the coconut mixture.
Here, I'm pouring the drained liquid into the tamarind nectar.
Don't want to waste anything.

Next, heated some oil and added mustard seeds.
Be careful so they don't burn.
(Mine burned the first time and I had to pour it out and do it again.)

Added in the trussed eggplants, which are quite disturbing-looking to me.

When you saute them and turn them over, they're a lovely purple.

Back to the tamarind nectar.
Boil and add in cornstarch slurry.

Add in ginger.

Pour over top of eggplants.
Set aside and keep warm.

Next up: DOVE.
Youngest Hawthorne loves his doves.

And actually, he shot these doves.
Now, before you go all PETA on me
(and that would be People Embarassing the Tidewater Area),
doves are totally overpopulated here. I actually found a dead dove the other day in my yard. Mr. Hawthorne thinks maybe it was roosting, something spooked it, and it flew off in the dark, flew into a tree, and broke its neck. Who knows? One of my yard worker friends picked it up, looked around suspiciously, and deposited it next to F-t-F's mailbox. Hah!
Anyways, my boys snipe doves during the hunting season.
They follow all the rules, so please don't send me angry emails or nasty comments about the dove hunting.
We eat everything we kill.
Take that anyway you want to.
Heh

Parboil the doves.

Flour them, salt and pepper, butter shavings on top, and pour the dove cooking liquid in the baking dish.

Bake until browned.
Delicious.

Next up is a cucumber/shrimp stir fry.

In my little WalMart cups on the left, I have:
3 TB sherry
2 TB white vinegar
1 2/2 TB soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
garlic
ginger

Then I have my cucumber from my garden.
celery
green onions
shrimp

Here's everything ready to wok up.

First the cuke slices go in with the ginger.

Saute for maybe 3 minutes and set aside.

Next, add in the garlic, onions, celery, and shrimp and cook for 3 minutes.
]

Set aside and keep warm.

Now for the sauce:
ginger
sherry
vinegar
soy sauce
cornstarch
sugar

Add all to the wok and heat through.

Add the shrimp and cukes back to the sauce mixture.

Toss and heat up.

And here's my dinner:
Top is the spicy eggplant.
Right is the shrimp cucumber stir fry.
Bottom left is Basmati rice.

I sat down and ate.
Mr. Hawthorne ticked me off.
He stayed on the damn phone, disregarding the fact that I had COOKED and PREPARED for THREE HOURS. And then he just DISSED me. Effer.
Then, after his phone call, he stood up and PICKED.
I HATE that.
Now, I'm YELLING.
(sorry)

This was quite delicious.
Mr. Hawthorne declared the eggplant, "radically different." Whatever that means.
I just really liked the intense flavors and the heat of the eggplant. It was tamed by the coolness of the cucumber in the shrimp. The blandness and nuttiness and buttery goodness of the rice was just an added plus to this dish.
Every component complemented

the others.
It was win-win for me.