River Spinach of Birthdays
Jul. 24th, 2020 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse
Image: water spinach, river spinach, on choy, ong choy, and by many other names....
It got stupid hot today, but it started out mild enough and so I decided to give a recipe that included water spinach a try. I found an eggplant and tofu dish in the New York Times that I modified to exclude eggplant and include pork and it turned out decently. Mason, whose birthday it is today, was a trouper and gave it a try. I am not planning on posting the recipe unless people also find themselves with an abundance of water spinach, but here's what the finished dish looked like.
Image: chunks of tofu, water spinach in a brown pork sauce over soba noodles, (because they were what I had around.)
The New York Times article was helpful because it had a large description of the care and handling of this vegetable, including instructions about how many times to wash and rinse the leaves and stems, which they had me separate so that I could cook the stems slightly longer than the leaves. This seemed to work? The stems still had a nice crunch, but they did not feel like I was chewing on stalks, you know?
The dish itself was tasty, but I'm not sure the extent to which that had anything to do with the water spinach. I might try a dish that features them more prominently, since I have a few left. I didn't think it was wise to throw them all in since they were a 100% unknown. Mason, in fact, thought the dish could use a few less of them and more noodles. He was right about the noodles since I discovered not only did I not have the variety of Japanese noodles that I thought I had, but also I was down to one measly bundle. I did like serving them over noddles, though the article said I could have chosen rice.
At any rate, the big excitement today was Mason turning 17. It was actually not all that exciting, as we didn't have a lot planned. Mason had already gotten his birthday present, of course, the gaming laptop having arrived last week. We did buy him a red velvet cake from Wuollet's, which was quite tasty, and which we had after a dinner "out" (as in take out) from The Tea House on University Avenue. Since it's so stupid hot here again (heat index at 110 F / 43 C), he and I hung out in the cool room and watched Overwatch together, which was very reminiscent of our trip to Los Angeles last year, when we were able to watch it played live, in studio, in Burbank.
He is currently having a blast with his friends online.
So, it seems as though it's a good day for him. We were remembering last year and we all agreed even a pandemic birthday was preferable to last year, when Shawn was hospitalized over his birthday.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:05 pm (UTC)Thank you! I will pass your birthday wishes on to Mason.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:06 pm (UTC)I'll pass on your well wishes.
Happy Birthday & Water Spinach
Date: 2020-07-25 01:50 pm (UTC)For me, the crunch of the stem is the main attraction. You can cook it, reheat it in the microwave, and the stems still crunch. The leaves pretty much vanish. We don't separate them over here.
Re: Happy Birthday & Water Spinach
Date: 2020-07-25 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 02:56 pm (UTC)---
>>(heat index at 110 F / 34 C)
I think you mean 44 C, which is rather more horrifying than 34.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-26 01:09 pm (UTC)