OMGSNAX!

bear cub’s been recording at my house this week & they were set to come over this evening to practice, so i figured something that involved a lot of prep time would work well as everyone else would be busy while i was cooking — although it was awfully loud as they were playing at full volume one room over, so loud that those of us in the kitchen couldn’t really make conversation over the noise & through our earplugs!

i saw the rice bowl post on kim o’donnel’s blog in the washington post & realized that i hadn’t made fried rice in some time, so i was quite excited to give this new recipe a try!

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons sesame oil
2 large eggs, beaten
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 tablespoons minced, mild fresh chilies
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup diced carrots (substitute: chopped fresh green beans)
4 cups cold cooked rice (about 1 1/3 cups uncooked rice)
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced celery (substitute: chopped bok choy)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

METHOD
heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact.

swirl in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, & the eggs. cook 30 seconds to 1 minute, tilting wok so that the eggs cover the surface as thinly as possible to make a pancake. when bottom is just beginning to brown & egg is just set, flip & allow to set on other side, about 5 seconds. transfer to a cutting board & cut into shreds.

add remaining tablespoon of vegetable oil, followed by shallots, chiles, & garlic, & stir-fry for about 10 seconds. add carrots (or substitute), reduce to medium heat & stir-fry 2-3 minutes until shallots soften. add rice, bell pepper, celery (or substitute), soy sauce, salt, & pepper. increase heat to medium-high & cook 2-3 minutes more, breaking up rice with a metal spatula until heated through. add egg & stir to combine.

remove wok from heat. stir in cilantro & drizzle remaining sesame oil.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
i doubled the recipe since there were six of us eating, & that worked out just about right & was still manageable in the wok. more & more, i’ve noticed how difficult it is to properly use a wok on an electric range (especially one as shoddy as mine!). i blame alton brown for raising my awareness here — but it still seems to get the job done, so not too many complaints.

i do think the trick of using cold rice is probably helpful for it to be more fried & less sticky (i didn’t plan ahead & spent most of the day with my cousins, so i had to make the rice while i was chopping vegetables), & i have a hunch that long-grained rice would go a long way to that goal, too, but the taste was still fine & i don’t have a problem with sticky rice anyway.

the only real substitution i made was using peanut oil instead of vegetable oil. i considered adding broccoli (everything’s better with broccoli!), but it makes val sick so i refrained.

honestly, i’m not sure if i can say how it compared to the other fried rice. i’ve made it on several different occasions, & i do appreciate the addition of the tofu (which isn’t very popular among many of the people who eat my cooking), but i think that taste-wise, this version was maybe a little bit better by virtue of being less complicated. i definitely enjoyed the inclusion of the fried egg in this one!

 

 

 

“Aromatic Vegetarian Fried Rice” from The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young, via Kim O’Donnel.

so here at MHR world HQ (aka my house), wednesday nights have quickly become NIGHTS OF TERROR & DOOM. b/c, you see, daniel has class till 10pm, which means i schedule my evening overtime (i conduct interviews for two behavioral research studies) from pretty much the minute i walk in the door (5pm) till as close to 10pm as i can cut it without wanting to totally fall into a telephone-induced coma. i usually shove food in the general direction of my mouth during one of my wicked short breaks, but daniel arrives starving without fail, & almost always after 1030pm. i try to have something ready for him — & usually i’m hungry again at that point anyway — but also? i’m either cooking between interviews (ie, in fifteen-minute chunks) or after my last one wraps up (again, nearly 10pm), so i’m not gonna be doing any kind of fancy dinnering, especially not one that involves lots of post-dinner dishwashing, if you get my drift.

further complicating matters, tonight? i am car-less. & i am in DIRE need of groceries. which basically means that i’m out of every single kind of juice i normally have on hand. & also, today, out of crackers, peanut butter, eggs, & anything else i could possibly use to put together something for daniel that’s not (a) pizza (which he refuses to eat after spending four days in NYC eating nothing but) or (b) tortellini (which, although he likes it, is something we’ve already had twice in the last seven days b/c it’s an easy go-to meal).

what i DO have is a big old bag of rice. & i’m armed with the knowledge that daniel’s been known to enjoy rice involving spices. & i only have about eight vegetarian cookbooks, & oh, an extra can of kidney beans, so, you know, i can probably come up with a decent red beans & rice recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 green pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
a few dashes hot sauce
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed well in a strainer
4 cups hot cooked rice (from 1 cup raw rice)
sour cream (optional)

METHOD
heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the onions, garlic, & green pepper, & sauté until the pepper is very tender, about 10 minutes.

sprinkle in the chili powder & paprika, & cook 30 seconds. mix in the tomato sauce, water, hot sauce, & kidney beans, & simmer about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is hot & fragrant. serve over rice with a small spoonful of sour cream on top, if desired.

tip: to give the beans a smoky flavor you can add 1 small chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. mince it on a small plate with 2 knives before adding it to the beans. omit the hot sauce.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
first off, i halved the recipe. b/c seriously: two people.

secondly, i didn’t even think to take pictures of this as i was preparing it b/c, really, it’s just more of the same, ie, dicing & sautéeing.

skillet beans

as an FYI, i used a yellow bell pepper instead of a green one b/c i never buy green (don’t care for the taste, even though daniel insists that they taste the same), & i used a little less onion than i normally would b/c of the size of the onion i happened to have on hand — but everything else was pretty much spot on. i was lucky that i had the spices on hand due to previous recipes (finally!), & also? i had the beans leftover from a stew i made where i decided, at the last minute, to not double the recipe.

& you know what? it tasted pretty good, especially for something i threw together at 1010pm.

muy delicioso

 

 

“Red Beans and Rice” from Vegetarian Classics: 300 Essential Recipes for Every Course and Every Meal by Jeanne Lemlin, © 2001.

so here’s the thing: i realized at work today that i absolutely had to do this week’s recipe today, as tomorrow is brian’s CD release & saturday i’ll be in kirksville with him for another show, & then it’s NEXT WEEK already, & come on, man, i’ve got a schedule to stick to! sheesh.

other dishes up for consideration, mostly found while browsing allrecipes.com during my half-hour lunch break, included: some kind of yellow curry & broccoli, sweet potato cornbread, frittatas, macaroni & cheese, some kind of pasta (oh wait but yesterday!), cheesecake. but then i got home & flipped through my Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home & saw i’d dog-eared a fried rice page, & daniel said that he’d been craving some kind of rice dish ANYWAY, so we were off to schnucks to get a bunch of overpriced oils & some vegetables. thank god for last minute choices!

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or cider vinegar
2 teaspoons molasses or brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili paste, or splash of chili oil (optional)
1 cake tofu (about 3/4 pound)
3 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
2 medium red or green bell peppers, cut into thin strips
6 ounces snow peas, stemmed (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup water
4 cups cooked brown rice
2/3 cup chopped scallions
chopped toasted almonds (optional)

METHOD
in a shallow nonreactive bowl, mix together the marinade ingredients [everything through chili oil]. cut the tofu into strips 1 inch long, 1/2 inch wide, & about 1/2 inch thick. add the tofu strips to the marinade & stir gently, using a rubber spatula to avoid breaking the tofu. marinate for about 10 minutes.

prepare all of the remaining ingredients & have them at hand before starting to stir-fry.

heat a wok or large skillet. swirl the oil around the wok, add the peppers, & stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high heat. add the snow peas & water & continue to stir-fry, uncovered, until the water evaporates & the snow peas are crisp & begining to puff up. using a slotted spoon, remove the tofu from the marinade & add it to the wok. stir for a moment, hten add the rice & heat thoroughly. pour on the marinade, add the scallions, & stir.

serve immediately, garnished with chopped almonds if you like.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS

daniel chops the ginger (still don’t have a grater, people)

i hate brown rice.

have you noticed how often i start this section with “i hate X” or “i hate Y” ..? well as a big old DUH, i’m picky! christ. let it go.

so i bought some speciality medium-grain sticky rice b/c, as i discovered during last week’s chana masala fiasco, good rice really does make a difference (the basmati rice was delicious). & i will tell you this: eff your uncle ben’s minute rice shit, b/c this is where it’s at.

other things i did differently: added broccoli, halved the snow peas, 86ed the green bell pepper, used way less tofu (daniel doesn’t like it), oh, & i scrambled an egg on the side of the wok after i’d cooked the vegetables b/c doesn’t fried rice usually have egg in it? the hell?

my virgo boyfriend had to stack all the vegetables on the cutting board just so

vegetables in the wok

but holy COW, this was a good marinade. & i almost always mess up tofu when i make it, but i just got extra-firm & crossed my fingers & it didn’t fall apart! & it tasted really really good! & it was made even better by the fact that i didn’t have to chop any of the vegetables b/c daniel did it all while i did the tofu & the rice.

note the mongolian “fire oil” in the background

anyway, i believe we finally have our first OMGSNAX! success story. & imagine this, i owe it all to moosewood!

the final product

 

 

“Fried Rice” from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day by The Moosewood Collective, © 1994.