Sunday, January 06, 2008

1 - 6 - 8 Day

So how did you celebrate 1-6-8 day? In a previous post, I explained the ausciousnessus of 1-6-8 in Chinese. "I Liu Ba" sounds like "I Lu Fa" which means a "road of fortune." So on January 6th of 2008, it is a special day to do something to pave a road of fortunes into the new year. If you live in Europe or are from Europe or other countries that read the dates "backwards" you'll have June 1st of this year to replicate this magic.
















These are my own new concoction of stuffed mushrooms. Mushroom caps. Stems removed. In the oven, I baked a small pyrex dish with a container of anchovies (really could have been... maybe half of it as they came out a little salty, but with rice that could be a preferred thing!), 6 garlic cloves, and topped with some olive oil and Italian parsley. Dunno, baked at 350 for 30-40 minutes? I dipped the mushroom caps in the oil and place them on a tray. For the filling, I start with a dollop of bechamel sauce (butter, flour, milk, and ground nutmeg). I mash up the remaining anchovy garlic sauce (which also makes for great crustini dip), mixed it with about 1 Tsp of dry bread crumbs to make it a bit pasty and then dollop those into the (18) mushrooms. Sprinkle a little bit more of the bread crumbs on top for effect. Bake 20 minutes. Deda always says no cheese with seafood so that ingredient is absent. Tastes great. Needs some extra color. Originally intended to use some of the parsley to garnish but was too busy to do it. I guess a few pieces/stalks just on the side would have done.
















Baby Bok Choy pt. 2
















Ground pork with eggplant and mushrooms stems that mysteriously appeared in the kitchen. This didn't come out so well because 1) didn't use enough scallion in the oil to really cook out that meaty smell. 2) wanted to use fish sauce in marinade but forgot and didn't use enough soy to start with. The good news is that just adding some soy or fish sauce afterwards helped make a big difference and made it a nice dish.





















I neglected to take pictures during the meal so this is one of people leaving. Jeep, Kevin's hair, part of Jeremy's head. Part of Dan's head. The is the doorway leading to their road of fortunes. That is the doormat with which to wipe away your misfortunes.

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