Shrimps, Beef & Eggplant in Spicy Satay Sauce - Do You Like Dishwashing?

Remember those days when your mind went blank? When you had absolutely no idea what to cook? When you asked yourself "what do you wanna eat" and the answer is an annoying mental shrug?...and when you asked someone else hoping for an easy answer, you were always given the ever so helpful up-to-yous? (Damn, I hate up-to-yous).

Yep. I had one of those yesterday.

Then I remembered, when in doubt, drench anything in Lee Kum Kee's Satay Sauce, and everything shall taste delicious! OK, I got the sauce covered. Now...what would "anything" be?

I wandered around the market and nothing said "buy me, eat me"....finally, I got a pack of minced beef, since it tastes especially good with satay sauce; a pack of peeled shrimps, because no defrosting, no peeling, no deveining necessary (convenience wins me all the time), and the fragrance of shrimps on this dish? Unbelievable!

Gosh, I still needed some kind of vegetables. Does eggplant count as veggie? OK, I don't care. No soaking, no peeling, no fine chopping necessary; it soaks up sauces like a sponge; it's soft and creamy; and heck! The purple would look really nice with the orange of the shrimps. Thus...

Shrimps, Beef & Eggplant in Spicy Satay Sauce

Recipe
- 1 pack of minced beef (about 0.7 lb)
- 1 pack of peeled shrimps (about 15 pcs)
- 1 long eggplant (cut into bite sized chunks and pop in the oven with some olive oil until softened, I used 250C for 10 minutes)
- 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
- half an onion, chopped roughly
- 3 red chilli (with seeds for the heat)
- 2 dried lime leaves (optional)
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- a bit of grated lemon zest
- 1 pack of Lee Kum Kee Satay Sauce for Hotpot (I prefer this, its liquid form makes it easier to handle, but add bit by bit and adjust as it can be too tasty)
- a bit of kecap manis (optional)
- olive oil for sauteeing

Saute garlic, onion, and chilli in olive oil, add beef, cook until almost done, add softened eggplants, add sauce, lime leaves, grate lemon zest, add shrimps, when the shrimps are just done (pink, curled and no longer transparent), turn off the heat, drizzle lemon juice, kecap manis, and serve with steamed rice. Important: never ever overcook the shrimps.

The cooking was a blast, and now the dreaded part begins...

There were times when I really thought I was so twisted and actually enjoyed washing dishes.
I was wrong.
Who the heck loves washing dishes? Oppps, maybe there are people who really find dishwashing theurapetic, soothing, calming, the bubbles are fun, even turning them on (hello, dishwashing fetish), whatever. NOT. ME.

I just hated the idea of piles and piles of dirty dishes towering in my kitchen sink. Thus I did them, even tried to enjoy it, without success.

Will these cake shaped dishwashing sponge cuties make dishwashing more enjoyable? Aren't they just so adorable?

I just wanted to bite that chocolate cake off its rack...or maybe the green tea swiss roll...


...or take a bite off that piece of watermelon?...

Whatever it was....they did not make me feel like washing dishes. SC, dish washing is yours, suck it up.