Quick Fried Rice

My mom makes the best fried rice; it's packed with flavor. She shared her tips with me, and I built on that to create my own version of FLAVORFUL fried rice. I bought some of TJ's applewood smoked bacon - the bits and ends, so to speak - which is cheaper than the package with the perfect strips. I keep it in my freezer, which actually makes for easier cutting. For this dish, I cut off a bit of the bacon and then sauté it in my wok. First step of flavor-building. Then the next step is from my mom. If you have scallions or shallots on hand, chop them up and add them to the mix. Brown those babies up. This adds tons o' flavah to the bacon fat, as if it needed any more. Then I add day-old rice, which is the other tip. Fresh rice won't fry up quite as nicely. Frozen peas are a must. I add a bit of soy sauce, salt, black pepper, sesame oil and ketchup. Here, I also added some cubed chicken from my bi-weekly slow cooker chicken.

 Then I beat a few eggs and create a well in the center of the wok (which I didn't do in the below picture, as you can see.) Do as I say, not as I do - ha ha!

 Stir the egg around in a figure eight pattern, and then when cooked, stir through. Taste and add more seasonings if needed.

This dish is a fave of the girls and they love having it for lunch. Amanda's preschool is awesome about warming up her lunches, and I bought a bento thermos thing in Little Tokyo for Katie - the next best thing to freshly warmed up lunches. You can do this with white rice, brown rice, quinoa, etc. Yum!

Fish Tacos with Slaw

The girls clamor for tacos every so often, and when I'm in a pinch for time, my fallback has been the pork carnitas at Trader Joe's - so fast and tasty, along with the TJ's wheat and corn tortillas. This time, I decided to honor the girls' request for tacos, but decided to change things up by making fish tacos. Easy and relatively quick - the fish cooked while I got the rest of the fixings ready. I found some frozen hake at TJ's (yes, there is a theme running through my posts - we live on TJ's!) and rubbed some olive oil and salt over both sides. I can't seem to find a photo, but will post if/when I find it. I baked the fish at 400 for about 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, I washed a bag of shredded cabbage and a bag of shredded carrots. Mixed in some vegenaise and pickle relish, and heated up the tortillas. I used a fork to break apart the fish, et voila, a tasty taco dish that we all loved. Katie was so enamored with the slaw that she asked to have it by itself and for some for her lunch at school the next day. This one will be in our repeat rotation!

Roasted Cauliflower

Here's a simple veggie dish that does the cooking, allowing you to prep the rest of the meal while the cauliflower roasts. This was one of those mishmash dinners, where I had some leftover frozen TJ's pasta with chicken and mushrooms (tried something new to us, and it was passable, probably not a repeat purchase), some homemade chicken and veggie egg rolls from Katie's generous piano teacher, and one dish that I had energy to prepare after a tiring day.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I took a head of cauliflower and sliced it - some pieces on the ends will break up into florets, which is fine. Place on cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. I sprinkled salt on both sides, rubbed the cauliflower in some olive oil and also rubbed some dried coriander on one side. You can stop here and roast for approximately 20 minutes, turning the cauliflower over halfway through. This time, I decided to punch up the flavor, inspired by my friend Sokesei, who raved about a dish prepared by a friend of hers. So I added a couple tablespoons of capers. After the cauliflower was done, I sprinkled some slices of honey roasted almonds (TJ's - love!) and the dish was a happy marriage of nutty cauliflower, sweet briny capers, and crisp almond slices. Definitely a repeat in my arsenal of veggie dishes!

Creamed Swiss Chard

Another quick and easy side dish that Katie and her dad really enjoy. And it's something for which Amanda will not turn up her nose - a win in my book! Sauté some chopped onions in olive oil. Sprinkle some salt in, and when nicely browned, add a few pats of butter, brown the butter and then add a few teaspoons of flour. Then cook the flour into a roux and then add some 1% milk, about 1/2 cup or so. Meanwhile, I've boiled some chard, cooked until tender and then set the chard in a colander with some ice cubes. Once cool (or kinda cool), hubby helped by squeezing out the excess water. Then I chopped the chard. Add the chard to the onion mixture, sprinkle a little nutmeg, add salt and pepper to taste, and voilà, a lighter but richly flavored creamed veggie dish.

Reverse Engineering

Yesterday, I took a co-worker friend to Baco Mercat for her belated birthday, and one of her choices was a blistered tomato quinoa salad with pecorino, corn, chives and mint. It was delicious, albeit a tad heavyhanded with the salt. What was really intriguing was that the mint was sautéed; the subtle flavor permeated the dish. I told her that I would try to reverse engineer it and create my version for dinner. I mentioned that I had some cooked quinoa on hand, cherry tomatoes from the farmers market, mint, cheese and frozen corn. She demurred, saying that the corn was fresh in the dish we had shared. True, but here's my philosophy, especially when it comes to weeknight cooking: we all know what's ideal, but the key to staying sane is doing the best you can with what you've got in your fridge and pantry at home. There is no need to rush to the store on the way home to pick up one special ingredient. It's about making a delicious, healthy meal in a way that won't be too tiring or overwhelming. There is no requirement out there that you perfectly replicate the restaurant dish you just tried. It's about being inspired by new dishes, by the ideas of others, and then building on that.

So I drove home, pullled the quinoa out of the fridge, broiled the cherry tomatoes with some sea salt and olive oil until they blistered and chopped some mint. I sautéed the mint in some olive oil, added the quinoa, some salt and the rest of the frozen corn I had in the freezer. When the tomatoes were done, I tossed them into the wok along with the tomato juices, and gave the whole thing a quick toss. I looked for some parmesan in the fridge and found some ricotta salata instead and grated some into the mix. Verdict: the girls loved it all but for the tomatoes, which I am still working on with them. Husband pronounced it "excellent!" And I found it to be packed with flavor but delicate at the same time.

I also made some creamed chard and baked some Trader Joe's fish nuggets. Another secret to maintaining my sanity: your dinners can be a mix of homemade and convenience foods. No need to feel pressure to have everything be homemade, sourced locally and be organic. Do the best with what you've got, and it turns out you can have a pretty special meal.

A Light Lunch

After a late breakfast on Sunday, a light lunch was in order: strawberries and grapes from the farmers market along with some slices of persian cucumbers, cubes of aged gouda and some wafer thin graham crackers. 

Bitter Melon

I've had a hankering for bitter melon recently, partly out of nostalgia for childhood foods and also as fall approaches, I've been craving that slightly bitter but rounded out texture that only bitter melon provides. And a part of me figures it's pretty healthy, too.

So, inspired by my friend Sokesei, who described over dinner a few weeks ago a bitter melon stir fry she concocted, I bought a couple of bitter melons from the Alhambra Farmer's Market (they have a lot of great Asian produce at this market), and they've been sitting in my fridge all week. Today, I thought it was the day to cook them - my first foray into cooking these guys.

I sautéed some ground chicken, about half a pound, in the wok, with some safflower oil. Added some salt and a few dribbles of soy sauce. I had sliced the bitter melon up into thin half-moons and then added them to the wok with the chicken, after the chicken was browned. After about 8 minutes of stir-frying, the stiff walls of the bitter melon surrendered to the heat and softened. I added some more salt and soy sauce, along with some black pepper and hoisin sauce. Would have done Chinese black beans, but with none on hand, I improvised. And I figured the girls would be more open to the sweetness from the hoisin sauce. Then I beat three eggs together and threw them into the wok. The result was this deliciously eggy, stewy combination of soft bitter melon with fragrant chicken. I added some sriracha sauce to my serving, and I ended up having three servings over the course of the day.

Verdict from my family? Katie and Amanda spit out the bitter melon and ate the egg and chicken. I think bitter melon may be an acquired taste, and this was their introduction to the vegetable. And hubby wasn't interested in trying it. Ah well, more for me!