(not really) on the lanai

It's raining today, and the temps have dropped quite a bit. Just wanted to show you what is happening on the lanai (or actually in our living room).

I brought these plants indoors to avoid frost getting them...Ranunculus. I hope this gives more than the one bloom that it did last year.

Cilantro is really perky.

along with the Swiss Chard

Kale, kinda stunted.

Ti leaf...I can't believe this one took. It was part of a flower arrangement and had some roots so I took a chance and planted it.

Anything exciting going on in your garden?

ethnic bean salad

Dunno where I scribbled down this recipe from, so if it is yours, please leave me a comment and I will adjust my post to link back and credit you.

Dressing:
1/2 cup EVOO
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1 clove garlic
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
sriracha sauce

1 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed
a nice handful of edamame, cooked and shelled
half a red bell pepper, diced
handful of cilantro

NOTES: I hadn't scribbled down any amounts for the beans or cilantro, so I am noting what I used. Also, I cut the dressing in half. I didn't have red wine vinegar and used white wine vinegar instead. I grated the garlic and put in 1/2 teaspoon of sriracha.

The recipe didn't call for the edamame or red bell pepper, I just threw it in for color.

I like the flavors of this salad, a little tart, sweet and a little spicy. The taste was similar to the Fragrant Tuna and Chickpea Salad that I often make.

Next time, I would add more bean varieties, a little diced onion and maybe even a can of corn.

I'm making this again.

from the lanai 3

With my new immersion blender/food processor, I shredded some daikon and carrot for bahn mi.

This is the recipe I use to make the banh mi veggies.

I also add some chili flakes and a dash of shoyu or nampla (fish sauce). I also try to soak the veggies overnight.

Then, one day for lunch I bought a piece of fried chicken from the convenience store and put it into a baguette with some of the banh mi veggies, cucumber & cilantro.

It was my first time putting fried chicken in, but it was a great choice...salty, sweet & sour.

The next day for Satoshi's breakfast, I made a banh mi with roast pork...he enjoyed it.

Since the amount of banh mi veggies I made was a lot, I threw together this salad for us one night.

Dressing was a sweet chili paste and a little vinegar.

I also gave some to my friend Kazumi when I went over to her house and I am also planning to make black bean dip with the rest of the cilantro.

The weather has been cold and rainy, so I better use up the cilantro soon.

from the lanai

From the lanai, I picked a little of the cilantro, a little green onion and two of the goya (bitter melon).

Can you believe that on the 3rd floor we have worms?

How in the heck can they come up that high?

Anyway, the worm(s) were in the smaller of the two goya, and on the bell pepper and on the chili pepper plant, I'll tell you about the bell pepper and chili pepper plant another day.

So, about a week ago, I spotted one worm(on the smaller of the two goya), it hadn't made a hole but was just gnawing at it, brave dude to gnaw at the goya like that.

I took it off, then left the goya to get bigger.

Yesterday, I noticed that the bigger of the two goya was a light tinge of yellow, meaning it was getting overripe.

So, I picked the two and noticed this hole...

...with this long bugger in it.

Eep! and the thing about it was I thought it was dead but it was still alive.

In the morning, I thought it would've died in the garbage bucket but no, it had climbed out and was trapped in my tea strainer on the counter...sigh.

So now, he will definitely be going out with the garbage...sorry, dude.

Getting back to the goya, green onion and cilantro.

Whenever I buy goya, my cooking repertoire consists of one thing, goya champuru.

This time around, I decided to try making stuffed bitter melon and used Nate's recipe as inspiration. UPDATE: the author passed away and the blog is no longer public.

After washing the goya, I sliced it into 1 inch (or so) slices. With a butter knife, I scraped out the "cotton" as best as I could.

Then, I filled each piece with this filling:

97 grams of minced pork
chopped green onion
6 water chestnuts, minced
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon black bean sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg

Mix well.

Since my goya were quite small, I had extra filling, Nate said in his post that he steamed the rest of his filling in foil cups, so that is what I did also.

I put them in foil cups that I have for bento.

I don't have a steamer big enough to accommodate all of these pieces, so I put them into my non-stick frying pan.

I put the heat on low, added a little water to the pan after it heated up and covered the pan for 30 minutes.

After steaming it for 30 minutes, I turned off the heat and let it sit in the pan, covered for another 10 minutes.

Then served it with rice and topped it with the fresh cilantro.

NOTES: As an after thought, if ever I need to steam in my frying pan again, I will put whatever needs to be steamed on foil, so that the water won't come in direct contact with it.

This was delicious and I'm glad I tried a different way to prepare goya.

Thanks Nate for the cilantro seeds and delicious recipe.