Today is Rachael's 23rd birthday, and she didn't want a big party so we had the aunties over for lunch. The menu was a qualified success; Rachael wanted Asian food, and the aunties have conservative, western palates. We had rice, mapo tofu (with hardly any chile but with the rest of the seasoning intact),
kai-lan (AKA gai lan, Chinese kale, or Chinese broccoli),
an apple daikon salad modeled on a salad I liked at Bako,
and clementine cake with chocolate sorbet (I forgot to take a picture till the party was over).
Everyone liked the rice and, somewhat surprisingly, the tofu, but the long pieces of kai-lan were a little hard for the aunties to manipulate and neither had heard of daikon so didn't want to try it. Rachael liked the kai-lan, though--she thought it was vastly superior to the baby bok choy I'd initially planned to make. 'Mommy, you could just substitute this whenever a recipe calls for bok choy!' We also both liked my salad, so I'll record its recipe in case I want to make it again.
Apple Daikon Salad
serves 4-6, depending on what else you're having
a medium, red apple, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
about 12oz of daikon, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal
3 or 4 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
2t yuzu juice or 1t each lime and orange juice
2t peanut oil
1t toasted, crushed sesame seeds
salt
Mix everything together in a big bowl, then transfer to a pretty platter to serve.
1 comment:
Rachael looks, of course, adorable. Everything else looks yummy too. I'm sad I couldn't be there. I would have been a better eater than the aunts.
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