cook: asian invasion in my kitchen

Did I mention that it's hot as heck in the Bay Area? Despite my kitchen being as warm as an oven, I needed to not let vegetables molder and decided that they needed to be tempura.

And if I was going to batter and fry kabocha, sweet potato, eggplant, and broccoli, I was also going to make chicken karaage.

I must've stood over hot oil in a skillet for over an hour already, and there were still lots of vegetables to be cooked.

I got it done and there was Japanese food to share with all the neighbors. All that frying because I still had half a kabocha squash in the fridge leftover from a previous Japanese dinner.

Patrick brought home more eggplant, and I still had the zucchini and yellow squash that I hadn't fried as tempura. Thai was next. All the ingredients below turned into a chicken and vegetable green curry with jasmine rice. I also happened to have a lot of peppers, both bell and chili to add with the Italian basil into the curry...

 

....but then Cecilia said I needed to thin her Thai basil plants when I said I was adding the Italian basil and holy basil to my curry and sharing with her.

 

All that herbaceous goodness definitely amped up the flavors of my curry. I wished I had remembered the kaffir lime leaves in my freezer, but.... 

....Cecilia said my green curry was the best I'd ever made and it made for a good lunch the next day at school.

I also still had a couple of pork chops from the bahn mi I made the previous week, which tonight turned into Vietnamese noodle bowls. Cecilia grilled shrimp and culled more Thai basil and mint from her garden while I tossed the leftover chops in Golden Mountain seasoning sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and lemongrass. I also chopped Napa cabbage and cucumbers and shredded carrots along with cilantro and green onion.

 

The surf and turf proteins along with the rice noodles and vegetables melded deliciously with a Laotian coconut chili dressing.

And Cecilia wanted to make noodle bowls for the neighbors, but thankfully they declined and so I have what's left for my lunch at school today.