I understand why many people don’t care for okra: it’s slimy. Or at least it has that tendency. Even while you’re just trimming it, it exhibits an alarming capacity for oozing a clear sticky substance that sort of splits the difference between Superglue, dog drool, and spider silk. The bits you pare away often stick [...]
Also tagged Bengali, okra, spicesOh, I took photos. But would they really express the satisfaction, a long day of writing behind me, an evening’s worth still to go, of spending a half an hour in the kitchen with the cool crispness of bok choy and cucumbers and scallions? Would they convey the sizzle of the tofu hitting the hot [...]
Also tagged black beans, bok choy, cucumber, garlic, home cooking, leafy greens, soup, tofu, wednesday's supperHaving written out my kimchi fried rice recipe last night, I thought I would follow up with a short list of essential stir-frying tips learned from many years of both excellent teachers and trial-and-error (which is sometimes the best teacher of all). Equipment: Do not stir-fry in a nonstick pan. Stir-frying requires very high temperatures [...]
Also taggedTo serve one very hungry person or two less-hungry people (perhaps with the addition of some other dish), prepare the following as mise-en-place: about a cup of cold leftover rice, broken up with a fork about a cup to a cup and a half of kimchi, very well drained, and cut into reasonably uniform bite-size [...]
Also tagged cabbage, Eggs, kimchi, riceAmong the perks of working at home: Kung pao bison with asparagus. Betcha you won’t find this on the Lunch Specials at your close-to-the-office Chinese place!
Also tagged asparagus, bison, home cooking, lunchGearing up for Sunday’s strawberry brunch, so dinner tonight was a bit of an afterthought. Still, even an afterthought can be well-thought. Soy tempeh, cubed, fried, seasoned with Chinese black beans and chile paste and a little soy sauce, over a bowl of fresh spinach. It was fab. Right now I’m waiting for my batch [...]
Also tagged chiles, Friday's supper, leafy greens, salads, tempehI do love me some green beans. I love them so much I eat them out of season, which I don’t do with most high-summer vegetables for the simple reason that I know full well they just won’t ever be as good as the ones you get when it’s high summer and the vines are [...]
Also tagged cabbage, green beans, leafy greens, tofu, wednesday's supperI wanted protein, and I got it. Smoked tofu, crisped up by stir-frying it in smoking hot oil, then stir-fried with broccoli and seasoned with black bean-chili sauce. We ate every scrap. One of our standbys, eggs with chives. I had a bunch of leftover egg whites to use up, so I made this with [...]
Also tagged black beans, broccoli, chives, Eggs, home cooking, monday's supper, tofuOne of the reasons I get so fed up with omnivores who trash-talk vegetarianism is that they frequently act as if tofu were a a sort of anti-matter where meat is concerned–or perhaps the Bad Kirk to meat’s Good Kirk–in addition to being a slow-acting poison that turns red-blooded American he-men into chinless girly-men with [...]
Also tagged bacon, chiles, Friday's supper, leafy greens, pork, tofuWe like chiles around here. We don’t actually like heat for heat’s sake, and couldn’t begin to give one tiny little mouse dropping for the whole “anything you can eat I can eat hotter” routine. But we do like chiles. We feel similarly about ginger and garlic. I find, in fact, that if I don’t [...]
Also tagged chiles, green beans, leafy greens, tofu, wednesday's supper