Tuesday Dinner: Fine Shrimp Sauce stirfry chicken + eggplant with spicy soy paste

Yesterday OCT brought the not so yummy penne to school for lunch and dinner. He reckoned that he will need to stay back to prepare his presentation for today's committee meeting. However, my highly efficient OCT called around 7:15p.m and told me that he has completed his work and can come back for dinner instead. He said he would be back by 8 p.m and was REALLY hungry.

Uh-oh, I didn't have any plan for dinner...and all the meat was in the freezer. I quickly pull out 2 pieces of chicken breasts and immersed them in cold running water. And ran through all the options in my mind. Something fast and simple......That got to be stirfry. Now come to the sauce. What sauce? We just had the hoisin sauce not long ago. It's too late to marinate it for the scallion & ginger chicken stirfry....Maybe, I will try the shrimp sauce. But has anyone use shrimp sauce to stirfry chicken? It is normally used to fry kangkong, as far as I know.... Time was ticking, I need to take make a decision. So I went ahead to prep the chicken and tossed it with some cornstarch before sauteing. A tablespoon of the greyish shrimp sauce was added, together with a dash of sambal oelek and dark soy sauce. Oh, and some sprigs of green onion and diced ginger.

The eggplant is pretty easy, and always a guarantee winner. In case the chicken doesn't turn out well, we will have the eggplant to go with the rice at least. Surprisingly, the chicken turned out to be not too bad. It wasn't a "wow" dish, but OCT seems to enjoy it. He even refilled his rice twice. I suspect he would not eat the chicken if he knew I added shrimp sauce, so I only smile politely and nodding my head when he complimented the dish.

Sometime it's funny that I try so hard to make different dishes and yet he could hardly remember what he has eaten. On the contrary, a simple repetoire can make him the most satisfied diner of the world.