Cook Food » improvising

My new favorite quick meal

lisajervis — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:23:39 +0000

I’ve never been a big fan of fried rice ordered in a restaurant, but since last week, when my roommate had a big tub of leftover rice she couldn’t finish on her own, it has become my new favorite weeknight supper.It does depend on having some slightly unusual ingredients in your pantry, but they are worth it. Or just go without. Here’s how it goes:

some peanut and/or untoasted sesame oil (a tablespoon or two?)
some garlic, minced (a tablespoon or two?)
some ginger, grated (a tablespoon?)
some cooked rice (a generous cup or maybe cup and a half for each person you want to serve)
many splashes of soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, and Chinese rice wine
some edamame (a handful or two; frozen work really well); cubed tofu, either plain or smoked/seasoned, would also be great in this
some green vegetable, coarsely chopped (as much as you want to eat)—I used baby bok choy one night and pea tendrils the other, and I think it would also be great with snow peas, spinach, broccoli, and pretty much any green you find at an Asian farmers market
1-2 eggs, beaten with a little water (optional)
some toasted sesame oil (a teaspoon or less)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or saute pan over high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly and not letting them burn.
Add the rice and stir to get each grain coated with garlicy, gingery oil.
Add splashes of soy, vinegar, and wine. Keep stirring.
Add the edamame if they’re frozen. If not, or if you’re using tofu, you can let the rice cook alone a bit and get crispy bits before adding them. Also add more oil if you need to.
Add the green vegetable and slap a lid on there for a minute or two to get things wilted/steamed.
Keep stirring, being sure to scrape any crispy bits off the bottom of the pan.
Make a well in the middle and add some egg. Stir it up until you’ve got some cooked curds, then stir those into the rice and make another well, and do the same with more egg. Continue until all the egg is cooked.
Turn off the heat and add some toasted sesame oil for the final bit of flavor.

If you’re using broccoli or something else that’s harder/takes longer to cook, add it in step 4 instead of 5.

Some other things to try: onions, scallions (step 1); cilantro (step 7-1/2 or 8); chili oil (step 8), sriracha (step 1 or 8 or both).

P.S. No pic of this meal, since it’s not particularly photogenic—esp on my cameraphone. I am no food stylist. Nuff said.

Improvised breakfast scramble

lisajervis — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:13:57 +0000

This morning my friends Erin and Janet and I were at the farmers market, but ridiculously didn’t think to buy any ingredients to make into our morning meal. And by the time we got home we were rilly hungry. This is what I put together from things that were in the house. It was inspired by something that Janet always special orders at our favorite neighborhood brunch spot. That dish is a chard and asiago scramble, and she always gets it with beans instead of eggs. So I took that idea and ran with it.

All amounts are approximate, and you could use whatever vegetables you think would taste good. We had a sweet potato and also some bell pepper strips that were left over from something else. So that’s what we used.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Breakfast Scramble

Serves 4 if you have some toast and fruit; 2 if it’s the only thing you’re eating and you’re really hungry.

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon cumin

• 1 teaspoon coriander

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• One small sweet potato, cut into small cubes (like 1/4 inch) so they cook fast

• Half a bell pepper, chopped

• One can of black beans, drained and rinsed

• Pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan or large skillet over medium heat; add the garlic and salt and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the cumin, coriander, oregano and cook for a few more minutes, stirring more often.

3. Add the sweet potato and a few tablespoons of water to keep it all from burning. Stir, cover, and reduce the heat if it seems like things might burn. Cook for about 5 minutes, adjusting heat and stirring as necessary.

4. Add the bell pepper and the beans. Add more water if things are too dry, and taste it to see if you need to add more salt. Stir and cover and cook until the beans are hot and the veggies are cooked (this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes if you cut the veggies small enough).

5. Grind some pepper over it if you want.

6. Eat and enjoy.

Scrounged Germanic potato salad

lisajervis — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:35:54 +0000

When I was growing up, whenever my mom (who did all the cooking) couldn’t face the task of putting together a regular, organized, main-dish-plus-sides meal, we would do what we called “scrounging”: basically, pulling leftovers and other ready-to-eat items out of the fridge/pantry and assembling a meal. It was fun and meant that each person got to satisfy hir whims, to some extent.

I think the practice is part of what gave me the bug for improvisational, use-what-you’ve-got cooking—which I put to use today.

I’m due at a friend’s party in just a few hours, and due to a rough work schedule this week, I missed all my farmers market opportunities. I didn’t have a lot to work with for a decent pot luck contribution, and all the places to get good fresh ingredients are closed today.

As I pondered the problem and considered just bringing a bottle of wine that’s sitting in my frdge, I remembered: I have potatoes that I got at the market a few weeks ago. And I always have olive oil, and garlic. And surely I can find some appropriate mustard and vinegar in my cobbled-together kitchen (it’s a long story, but most of my stuff is in storage right now and I’m kinda squatting in a not-very-hospitable place). Then I remembered that I even have some parsley that, though it’s probably on its last legs, might have a few salvageable leaves left. Bingo: Germanic potato salad. (Why Germanic and not just German? Well, I make no claims to authenticity, and as a former copyeditor, I’ve gotta be precise. But I digress.)

Here’s what I had:

• About 2-1/2 pounds of small Yukon Gold potatoes (any variety on the waxy side would work well)
• One bunch old parsley (a small handful of the leaves were still good)
• Some spicy brown mustard (I also found Chinese horseradish mustard and some dijon; the latter would also have worked well, but I chose the brown)
• Some white wine vinegar
• Some olive oil
• One garlic clove
• Some salt

And here’s what I did:

• Boiled the potatoes (no peeling!) for about 20 minutes (until a knife slid easily through one of them)
• Minced the garlic and then mashed it into a paste, along with two pinches of salt, with the side of my knife
• Put the garlic in a small lidded jar with about a tablespoon of mustard, a tablespoon of vinegar, two tablespoons of olive oil, and a scant teaspoon of salt; shook it all up
• Minced the parsley
• Cut the potatoes into chunks when they were cool enough to handle; took a shower while I let them cool a little more but not too much (hot foods absorb dressing very well)
• Put the potato chunks in a bowl, poured the dressing over them, added the parsley, and stirred

In an ideal world, I probably would have used cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, and I would have loved to have added a scallion (if I’d had one, I would have sliced it into tiny rings and added it with the parsley, and I also probably would have skipped the garlic). But I made a lovely picnic dish to share without planning ahead and without having to go to a chain supermarket to buy anything processed or grown far away, so I’m damn satisfied.