Ground beef and Eggplant.

Ground beef and Eggplant.

So, for the many of you out there who don't know (and yes, there are that many of you that I say many) I lived in Hong Kong for 2 years. I won't go into why I lived there here, perhaps on a different blog, but it was an amazing time in one of the single most amazing cities on the planet.

Hong Kong truly is amazing, you have this massive range of architecture, from the sleek ultra modern HSBC headquarters building in Central, to the (insert traditional temple from all over the place here) right on to the multi century old walled cities in the new territories.

In just a few minutes walk you can go from a dense urban center with 40 story tall high rises to suddenly finding yourself in open fields of rice patties and other farms with just 3 story multi family homes with families working in the fields in traditional garb.

A city where you only drive if you wish to for pleasure or have to as a work duty, the public transportation is fabulous and a model of what the US should be using. Even still on any given day you can see a variety of cars as diverse as the people. Citizens and ex-patriots from all over the world reside here. Bringing with them their own cultures.

While the city isn't as much a melting pot of cultures as New York is, I'd still say it's the single most incredible place I've ever been in all my long hard years on this planet. It's beautiful in all sorts of ways, as I said before the man made creations are great, you've got beautiful jungles and mountains and the ocean near by, beautiful people (minus a snaggletooth or ten.) and amazing food.

Seriously, the food is amazing. One of my favorite things I've ever eaten was here, it's called in Cantonese -Yu Heung Kehji Faahn- or fish fragrant eggplant rice. Yep, that's an amazing translation there that tells you nothing. It's an eggplant dish in a sauce made of tomatoes, ground fish or beef or chicken (I've ordered it at dozens of places and gotten all sorts of variants for the ground meat) some onions and miscellaneous spices and rice. So freaking tasty.

So tonight after a long drive home from Sun Valley I decided I'd try and make it. Sadly I used some of the wrong ingredients and failed miserably, though I did enjoy what I made. Feel free to serve it as a soup/stew/chili thingy mabobber, or over the cauliflower faux rice we've posted.

1lb ground (beef/chicken/fish of some sort, preferably a darker tasting fish/tofu

1 white onion, cut into strips

1 large eggplant (Chinese preferred but normal eggplants work as well.)

1 can diced tomato

1 can diced tomato with chili seasoning (yep, this was my mistake)

3 cloves garlic

1tsp ground ginger/diced ginger

2tbsp dark soy sauce

1/2 cup shao xin cooking wine (I substitute a dry sherry for this for other dishes, unsure here)

small chili peppers to taste

In a large wok Sauté the onions and then add the beef. Once the beef is mostly done add every thing else. For the eggplant, just before you put it in, slice it into thick sticks 2-3 inches long and maybe 1 inch squared, the second it's sliced toss it in so you don't have to watch it turn that nasty brown eggplant does when it oxidizes.

From here, let it all boil a bit with a lid over it till the meat is cooked through and the eggplant is soft and squishy. Serve, eat, marvel at how tasty your food is.

I must say, it wasn't the dish I wanted to make, but it was still quite tasty, not the prettiest, feel free to green it up with some zucchini or a little cilantro added last second. Please feel free to change it around, cooking is more of an art then a science, what strikes you may not strike me but as long as it's not poisonous/burning your house down/inflicting napalm.... never mind. If it's not causing harm and you like it you're doing it right.

Shepard's Pie..... the Cooper way (ish)

Shepard's Pie..... the Cooper way (ish)

Let's see, what do we have here? Beef, fauxtatoes, cheese, some green chili and garlic as well as some random veggies? Yep must be a man meal. Basically, it's male comfort food, good hearty winter grubbin here. A most excellent way to make use of some tasty ground beast. Let's face it, it's a crustless, large, beef pot pie and it's awesome, basically

2lb's Ground Beef

1 can diced tomatoes

half bag (8oz) green beans

2 cloves garlic

1 small can green mild chile's

1 onion

large mushrooms, I used 8 or 9

2 packages frozen cauliflower for fauxtatoes,

cheese. Your choice, however freaking much you want. (cheese is good! but no more then 4 oz per person per day of course)

Preheat oven to 350

in sauce pan sate mushrooms/onions then add beef. Once the beef is mostly cooked through add your can of tomatoes, the green beans chilies and garlic. Let this cook a bit till whatever liquid was added cooks out (should be fairly thick)

While you are doing this, prepare your fauxtatoes the way you like best.

Once both are finished move the beef mixture into a casserole, and then pat the Fauxtatoes down on top so it looks like a fauxcrust (HA! see what I did there?)

Sprinkle cheese on top of fauxtatoes, place in oven for 10-15 minutes (cheese should brown just a little on top)

Withdraw from oven, let cool a few before attempting to serve.

Devour the tasty beastmixture and rejoice.

Greek Chicken + Bonus Dish

Greek Chicken + Bonus Dish

Cooper here, likely posting on my wife's behalf for the foreseeable future.

So, here is where I should ramble on about this beautiful trip I took to Greece. Truly a beautiful country, a remarkable history, and wonderful people. I could tell you about all the delicious food and the amazing sights the ancient ruins and the beaches. And of course I couldn't leave out the women. Lets face it, Mediterranean women in general are fairly attractive and Greek women? Damn.

I would also tell you about how one evening this beautiful woman invited me home, we had this amazing chicken that she'd baked up. It was cooked with lemon and oregano and basil and feta cheese with a hint of garlic. The chicken was tender perfect, the herbs building up while the acid in the lemon cut straight through and balanced out the sharpness of the feta. She served it with a side that was comprised of sliced tomatoes, doused in an artichoke vinaigrette dressing topped with Feta cheese and then baked till the top of the cheese was crispy. This meal in particular was something to include in a story I could tell you about my trip to Greece.

Unfortunately I can't tell you about my trip to Greece as I have never been, the story I tell you would likely be a complete and utter fabrication, a work of poorly devised fiction designed to build up some meal that I cooked here in snowy Utah where the oldest building is less than 150 years old and the nearest ocean side beach is more then 600 miles away. Though the part about hot Mediterranean women and Grecian women in particular being hot? Totally true. And the attractive Greek girl baking this meal for me? Also true as my wife has made it several times, and is of Greek descent.

Greek Chicken

4 Boneless Chicken Breasts

2-3 Lemons

Oregano

Basil

Feta Cheese

Capers

Preheat oven to 350

Rub a little butter/olive oil/pam/whatever other semi flavorful-lubricating substance on bottom of a medium to small sized casserole

Slice 1-1.5 lemons into small rings and place them on the bottom of a casserole dish

Pat both sides of Chicken breasts with the oregano and basil, then place in casserole dish ontop of lemon rings

Slice up one more lemon (maybe just a half, this is all to your own taste anyway) and put a couple rings on each breast, and squeeze out maybe a half lemon onto the chicken breasts.

Sprinkle feta and capers onto chicken, more is always better. (in my opinion of course)

Let the chicken bake for 25-30 minutes. Since all ovens vary, your altitude and the alignment of the moon and planets will vary as well this may change for you personally. (though seriously, 30 minutes should be about perfect for moist amazing chicken)

Remove from oven, check to make sure your chicken is cooked properly (I like my beef and fish rare, but uncooked chicken is just nasty.... and dangerous) Now serve alongside the ground up cauliflower like rice, or maybe some fotatoes and the usual large helping of rabbit food + a boring dressing!!!!!

...... You could serve it like that, and it'd still be delicious. Or you could go the extra mile and whip up the little tomato dish I described.

Baked Tomato and feta side thingy!

5 large tomatoes

Feta cheese

The tasty vinaigrette of your choice

preheat oven to 350

Butter/oil up a small pie dish

Slice tomatoes into thin rings spreading them all around the dish and on top of each other.

Douse in dressing, but don't drown them

Sprinkle feta on top to taste

Put in oven on very top rack for 5-10 minutes. I did it for last 10 of the Greek Chicken dish and it was perfect.

Pull out, serve, and enjoy in how tasty a simple 3 ingredient combo can be!