Sick food

I've been so busy lately that I've barely had time to breathe, let alone cook. And recently, when I finally had some time off and a chance to kick back, I was waylaid by bronchitis and--well--couldn't breathe. But given that I didn't leave my apartment for a few days, I did get to do some cooking. Sadly, my usually robust appetite deserted me while I was sick, and I only managed to eat little bits of things, sort of grazing throughout the day. When it came to dinner, I wanted something warm and nourishing but not too filling. I knew exactly what to make: revueltos. Revueltos are, essentially, Spanish scrambled eggs--doesn't sound too interesting, does it? But, like most things the Spanish do (especially with food), they do scrambled eggs well. The magic of revueltos lies in their texture: smooth, creamy and barely set--which, in turn, comes from the technique used to cook them: a well-oiled, barely warm pan over a very low flame, and constant stirring to encourage the curds to form.

And how to flavor them? Revueltos are the perfect match for leftovers. If you've got a little bit of cooked greens, or some roasted or boiled potatoes, or even some chunky tomato sauce hiding out in your fridge, just saute it in a little oil (and a lot of chopped garlic) before lowering the heat and adding your eggs. I used frozen peas, which happen to be my favored partner for revueltos (and one of my favorite ingredients in general). Just remember the Spanish mantra: everything is better with pork (i.e., some chorizo, ham or pancetta thrown into the mix can only serve to improve things).




Revueltos
Serves 1

1. In a small bowl, lightly scramble two eggs. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a small, heavy-bottomed pan coated with olive oil and set over medium heat, saute your choice of fillings. You can use anything you would enjoy eating with eggs; some of my favorites include chorizo; cubed ham; frozen peas; chopped scallions; cooked potatoes; and canned or marinated artichoke hearts (drained). I like my revueltos very garlicky, so I always add a good amount of chopped fresh garlic.
3. Lower heat to low and add more oil if neccessary (you want the pan to be very slick). Using a wooden spoon or a heat-safe rubber spatula, gently stir the eggs as they cook. By keeping the heat very low and cooking the eggs longer than is usual for convential scrambled eggs, you will create a creamy texture.
4. When eggs are just barely set, remove them to a plate and garnish with chopped fresh herbs, red pepper flakes, or grated cheese, if desired.

Beef: it's what's for dinner

And thank god for that. Working in a vegan organic restaurant three times a week and consuming a wider range of tofu and tempeh products than I ever knew existed, I find myself visited, on occasion, by the sharpest and most intense cravings for red meat. Probably a response to my body's decreased intake of iron, they're impossible to ignore. I experienced such a craving one night last week while trying to figure out what to cook for dinner for me and my roommate. When she called to ask what to pick up at the store, I had to restrain myself from just shouting "MEAT!" into the phone, instead composing myself and asking for a few red bell peppers, some light green, mild Cubanelle peppers, a bag of frozen peas, and a couple of pounds of a quick-cooking cut of beef like sirloin. With these ingredients--plus a bag of onions that I already had--I would make a sort of beef, peppers 'n' onions saute to be served over rice; it's not the type of thing I usually cook, but earlier in the day I had seen a coworker heating up the remains of this kind of dish for her lunch. It smelled really good, and the idea must have stored itself in my head.

When my roommate got home, grocery bags in hand, I got to work. First I sliced the beef into thin strips--I used a long, flat piece of sirloin tip, though something like flank or skirt steak would have worked well, too--and placed it in a bowl of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce to marinate. Then I sliced two red bell peppers into slender strips and did the same with two or three Cubanelle peppers. Small and thin-skinned, Cubanelles have a more mild flavor than green bell peppers, which I have a huge aversion to, especially when cooked. Actually, cooked green bell peppers are just about the only food aversion I have, so that's saying a lot. But I digress. The point is, by using the Cubanelles I was still able to get some variety of texture, flavor and color into this dish without having to use the dreaded green bell pepper. I completed my mise en place with about two large white onions, sliced.

To execute the dish I first drained the meat of its marinade, seasoned it with a little kosher salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper, then sauteed it in a large pan to near-doneness. I then removed it from the pan, added a little more oil, and fried the onions and peppers, along with three cloves of minced garlic, over medium heat for a good amount of time--you want to get the vegetables soft and caramelized. As they wilted, I seasoned the vegetables with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Finally, I added back the beef and its accumulated juices as well as a good handful of frozen peas, for some color and sweetness. At this point I needed a little cooking liquid to pull everything together, and, lacking any chicken broth or an open bottle of wine--either of which would work well in this dish--I found myself reaching for the bottle of pale ale that I had been sipping throughout the cooking process. I used about half a bottle of it and it coalesced the flavors wonderfully. After all, what's a more perfect union than beef and beer?

















Steak, Pepper 'n' Onion Stirfry
Serves 4

1. Select a 1.5 - 2 lb. cut of quick-cooking beef, such as sirloin tip or flank or skirt steak. Slice the meat against the grain, creating long, thin strips. Place the meat into a large bowl and add equal amounts (about 1/4 cup each) of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, creating a marinade. Stir to combine.
2. Core 2 large red bell peppers and 3 Cubanelle peppers (or substitute 2 large green bell peppers). Slice them into long, thin strips. Halve 2 large white or yellow onions, then slice those, too, into long, thin strips. Mince 3 cloves of garlic. Set the vegetables aside.
3. Drain the beef of its marinade and season it with a little salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper. Heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large, wide, heavy-bottomed skillet set over medium heat. Add the beef and cook, stirring, until nearly cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan and set it aside.
4. Add a touch more oil to the pan; keep it over medium heat. Add the onions, the garlic and some kosher salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have wilted, about 5-6 minutes. Add the peppers and continue to cook, stirring, until all the vegetables are quite soft and have begun to caramelize, about 10-12 minutes more. Season them with balsamic vinegar and soy sauce to taste; you should be aiming for about a 1/4 cup of each.
5. Add the beef and its accumulated juices back to the pan, along with a handful of frozen green peas. Stir to combine. If some cooking liquid is needed, add some chicken broth, dry white or red wine, or light-bodied beer to the pan, about 1/2 cup. Continue to cook until most liquid has evaporated and a thick sauce has formed, about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and serve over long-grain white or brown rice and garnish with chopped fresh parsley, if desired.

Digging into the archives

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've written on here. And the reason for my silence is that I haven't been cooking much at all. It's sad, really, and I miss it, but between my three jobs I just haven't had the time. I guess this is the reason that the whole 30 minute meals shtick has been so successful! Anyway, here's hoping that I get into the kitchen sometime soon--maybe this weekend. In the meantime, here are some items I made (fairly) recently, but never got the chance to write about.

First up is one of the many pasta dishes Anne and I often make for dinner, this one featuring fresh tomatoes, broccoli rabe (one of my favorite greens) and spicy Italian sausage:

















Slightly more adventurous in its flavors was this monster turkey burger that I made a while back, perched atop a toasted potato roll and topped with cheddar cheese, raw onion, tomato and sliced avocado:






















An adventurous turkey burger? you might be wondering, as I'm willing to bet that you've eaten many a turkey burger that leaves something to be desired (such as, well, flavor or moisture). But, at least the way I make them, the answer is yes. I use several different "recipes" for turkey burgers, but they all have two things in common: one, aggressive seasoning; and two, a little dollop of plain full-fat yogurt in the raw meat mixture to ensure a juicy final product. This time around, I made a Mediterranean-style burger, flavored with onion, garlic, cumin and coriander, but you can really add in anything you want: a few options that come to mind are slow-cooked caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, feta cheese crumbles, and chopped fresh herbs. Just don't use them sparingly.

Rigatoni with Broccoli Rabe, Tomatoes and Italian Sausage
Serves 4

1. Place 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3-4 links of hot Italian sausage and cook, shaking pan occasionally, until meat is set and partially cooked through. Remove sausage from pan and allow to cool slightly. Slice sausage into rounds or half-moons and return to pan, sauteeing until sausage pieces are browned. Set aside. Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil.
2. Lower skillet heat to medium. Add half of a large white or yellow onion, chopped, to the pan. Season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion becomes translucent. Add 3-4 large tomatoes, chopped, to the onion, and season with more salt and freshly ground black pepper. Lower heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have wilted and released their moisture. Add reserved sausage to pan and cook over low heat until sauce has thickened.
3. When water comes to a boil, salt heavily and add half a head of chopped broccoli rabe. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon to the pan of sauce.
4. Add about half of a 1-lb. box of rigatoni or other shaped pasta to the water and cook until just shy of al dente. Remove with a slotted spoon to the pan of sauce and stir well, cooking until pasta is done, about 3-4 minutes. Garnish with fresh olive oil and parmesan cheese and serve.

Mediterranean-Style Turkey Burgers
Serves 4

1. Place 1 - 1.5 lbs. of ground turkey meat in a large bowl. Add generous amounts of ground cumin, ground coriander, dried oregano, salt and black pepper, and a small amount of red pepper flakes. Add 1/4 of a finely-diced white or yellow onion, 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, and 2-3 tbsp. of plain full-fat yogurt. Mix to combine, avoiding over-mixing. Shape meat into 4 thick burgers.
2. Over a hot grill or grill pan or under a hot broiler, cook the burgers to medium-well, about 5-6 minutes per side. If using cheese, place slices over burgers after they have been flipped and about 4 minutes before they will be done. Serve over toasted buns with desired toppings.

Superior snacking

A good snack can be just as satisfying as a meal when you put in the effort and strive to create something more imaginative than the default cheese and crackers, apple with peanut butter, or whatever your personal go-to nosh might be. I've made myself some tasty snacks lately and thought I'd post them here.

I think my favorite snack in the whole wide world is guacamole. It was the dish that converted me to avocados after years of finding their texture unpleasant, and it hasn't lost its charm since. My "recipe" is simple: avocados, mashed but with some chunks left intact; tomatoes, finely diced; green onions, tops included, finely chopped; minced garlic, chopped cilantro and plenty (plenty) of fresh lime juice and salt. Vary the proportions to suit your own tastes; you can't go wrong:

















Onto another classic: the fried egg. What it lacks in invention it makes up for in sheer savory satisfaction. Salty, a little bit greasy, and from its shell to your mouth in about three minutes, the fried egg is the perfect snack, especially when eaten late at night, sprinkled with hot sauce and perched atop a slice of buttered toast:

















And I've saved my most off-the-cuff creation of late for last: the "Mexican" "pizza." I conceived of this most inauthentic bite when staring into my fridge, which on a recent afternoon was nearly as empty as my growling stomach, and spotting the following items: corn tortillas (featured in the taco post below), a block of Swiss cheese, some grilled hot Italian sausage links, a small container of leftover already-chopped scallions and tomatoes, a jar of salsa, and some beginning-to-wilt fresh cilantro. And then the idea for this "pizza" struck me. Here's how I made it. First, I sliced a sausage link into thirds lengthwise and seared them in a hot cast-iron pan, rendering some more of their fat and crisping them up a bit. I removed the sausage and warmed a tortilla in the pan; it soaked up the aforementioned pork fat and looked good enough to eat on its own. But I didn't stop there. I sliced up some Swiss and laid it on the tortilla, ran it under the broiler to melt then cheese, removed it, sprinkled on some scallions and tomatoes and finally placed the sausage slices on top of the whole thing. After one more run under the broiler, I crowned this increasingly vertical stack with a good spoonful of corn-and-black bean salsa and showered it with torn cilantro leaves. OK, yeah, so it was a good 10 minutes' work for a snack, but it was well worth it: hot, smoky, crisp and yielding all at once, this little number pleased my palate as well as my stomach:

Taco night

Stop me if this scenario sounds familiar. You're sitting in your home in the late afternoon/early evening, and your stomach is--gently at first, and then with increasing insistence--starting to remind you that dinnertime is approaching and that you'd better come up with a plan. So you sort of poke around your fridge and cabinets, but there's really not much of anything in the house; you put off the question and do something else for a while, but, inevitably, hunger wins out and inspiration follows quickly on its heels. Such was the case for me earlier this week, when I wanted to cook something for dinner but didn't want to have to make a shopping trip. I had chicken and rice, but couldn't think of anything interesting to do with them, until I spied a can of refried beans in the cabinet. All at once it came to me: tacos. I put in a phone call to my roommate, who was returning home from work, and asked her to pick up corn tortillas, lettuce, an onion and some cilantro; with the chicken, rice, beans and tomatoes I already had, we could whip up a quick and filling meal. And that's exactly what we did.

I'm not going to provide a recipe, because you can put anything you like in a taco. Our particular version featured a corn tortilla base; a scoop of white rice cooked with a little olive oil, onion and cumin; canned vegetarian refried beans; grilled chicken breast coated with cumin, coriander, crushed red pepper flakes and salt; shredded lettuce; diced tomatoes and onions; and sprigs of fresh cilantro: