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Easy Stir-Fried Rice (with the secrets for tasty, good-looking egg bits!)

I have always loved stir-fried rice, but as I’ve gotten older, I am less and less satisfied with the greasy stuff at the Chinese takeaway. And as I’ve gotten older, I cook more meals and therefore have more bits and bobs laying around getting ugly in the fridge. You know, half an onion here, a bit of cold rice there, some veggie bits that aren’t quite enough for one serving on their own, but make a pretty good pile if thrown together. And I always have eggs.

Just pour the lightly beaten egg in and leave it cook on medium.

Stir-fry, therefore, is perfect. It uses everything up (virtue), fulfills my veggie quota (more virtue), and gives us a vacation from my usual seasonings to go more Asian (variety). And now that I know the easy secret of how to get the egg bits looking and tasting great, well I think I am positively gourmet. It’s already vegetarian; vegans can skip the eggs and pan-sear super-firm tofu instead. Continue reading →

Tags: Asian recipes, cooking, easy Chinese, eggs, food, recipes, rice, stir-fry, using leftovers for stir fry, vegetable fried rice, what to do with leftover rice

Comments 15 Comments
Categories Asian, Chinese, eggs, Food, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stir-Fry, Vegan, Vegetarian

Arroz con pollo clásico (Puerto Rican Chicken and Rice, traditional and epic)

21 Sep

Finally!

Piled high in a platter and garnished with roasted red pepper and peas, this is a Puerto Rican classic!

Puerto Rican food is not as widely known as some other Caribbean cuisines (think Cuba and Jamaica), but when it comes to arroz con pollo — chicken and rice — you know what I am talking about. And I know I should have blogged this one for you a long time ago. Here, finally, is the one you’ve been waiting for.

Continue reading →

Tags: arroz con pollo tradicional, comida criolla, cooking, food, Puerto Rican recipes, recetas, recipes, Spanish cooking, traditional Latin chicken and rice

Comments 17 Comments
Categories Chicken, Comida Criolla, Food, Puerto Rican, Recipes, Spanish

Party Snacks: Spanish-Style Tortilla (omelette) with leeks, potatoes, and peas

18 Sep

You say party, I say tortilla. I have loved Spanish tortillas since I tried them on my first trip to Spain a million years ago and have been making them just about as long.

Let us be clear. I am not talking about the bread-like Mexican tortillas that are used for wrapping burritos and quesadillas. I am now talking about Spain, where tortilla means a stove top egg cake, a thick omelette, a frittata. Many are vegetarian (and many are not). All of them allow you to play with ingredients!

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Tags: cooking, food, leeks, potatoes, recipes, small dishes of Spain, Spain, tortilla

Comments 11 Comments
Categories CSA, eggs, Food, lunch, Party Snacks, Recipes, Spanish, Tapas, Vegan, Vegetarian

Party Snacks: Tapenade (Black Olive Spread)

16 Sep

This is one spread that makes no excuses. It has full-on, big-ass, unapologetic, salty flavor: black olives, capers, anchovies…This is for your friends who really enjoy robust and lusty food and who will slather spreads generously and lavishly. It is not subtle, so don’t waste these party snacks on the tea and crumpet crowd.

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Tags: anchovies, capers, cooking, dips, easy party recipes, food, jewelry party snacks, olive spread, party spreads, recipes, tapenade

Comments 17 Comments
Categories Food, Italian, Party Snacks, Recipes, Side Dishes, Tapas, Uncategorized

Basic Home-Made Tomato Puree (freezeable!)

13 Sep

I have just done a listening exercise with my ESL students on The Marshmallow Test … a 1960s experiment that offered four-year-olds one marshmallow off the bat, but an additional marshmallow if they could just wait alone in a room for 15 minutes with that first marshmallow and not eat it.

Plunged into ice water and ready for processing into tomato sauce

Astonishingly the findings over time showed that kids who could delay gratification for longer times at four, were likely to be more successful socially, educationally and professionally when they grew up than the kids who couldn’t wait and sucked that first marshmallow down as soon as they were alone with it.

Continue reading →

Tags: cooking, easy preserving, food, freezing produce, home-made puree, no-cook preserving, recipes, summer recipes, The Marshmallow Test, tomato puree, tomato sauce

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Food, gardening, Italian, Preserving, sauce, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

Back-to-School Freezer Fillers 3: Pollo Guisado (Stewed Chicken)

9 Sep

Pollo Guisado is one of those abuela (grandmother) dishes that Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-Caribbean folks grow up on. It is uncomplicated, but rich in flavor.

Yes, there is both wine and beer in it; that is not an error in the recipe! This is a modified and milder version of the classic Pollo Guisado which I have posted before (which uses flavorful chicken thighs rather than mild breast, and twice the beer). Very kid-friendly, it is best served with rice. It looks and tastes impressive, but is a cinch to make and is mostly hands-off.

Continue reading →

Tags: back to school recipes, comida criolla, cooking, Easy chicken dishes, food, freezeable, kid-friendly recipes, lunchbox ideas, Puerto Rican chicken stew, recipes

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Comida Criolla, Food, lunch, Puerto Rican, Recipes, Spanish, Uncategorized

Green Tomato and Tomatillo Bisque (Life-Goes-On-Lessons from the Garden)

4 Sep

I got my first inkling of disaster from the Blogosphere.

The fabulous Karen of Backroad Journal chronicled her battle with late blight in a recent post about her tomatoes. I gasped. In my myopic focus on avoiding the blossom end rot that plagued my tomatoes last year – a result of uneven watering while we were gallivanting about the island keeping the boy on the hop and too busy/tired to cause trouble — I had neglected to consider the possibility of late blight. After all, wasn’t that all done with in the catastrophic 2009 season? (It should have been done with after the Irish Potato Famine of 1845, but apparently not). Continue reading →

Tags: cooking, food, green tomato bisque, green tomatoes, late blight, recipes, soup, tomatillos, vegetarian

Comments 14 Comments
Categories CSA, farming, Food, gardening, Recipes, soup, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

Back-To-School Freezer Fillers 2: Nostalgia-Driven Tomato and Rice Soup

31 Aug

When I was a kid, I love-love-loved Campbell’s Tomato and Rice Soup, the kind from the can that you just added water to and stirred around on the stove top for a while. Holy Happy Meal, Batman, with a couple of saltines on, that was the best stuff ever to slurp on a fall day, and best of all, I could do it myself from a young age. Don’t ask me how young, because I don’t remember! But it was a handy thing to make, and it got you tons of labels for your school back in the day. Ah yes, the Campbell Soup Label Drives…. Continue reading →

Tags: Campbell's, cooking, easy soup, food, freezeable, home-made tomato and rice soup, recipes

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Food, lunch, Recipes, soup, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

Back-to-School Freezer Fillers 1: Basil Pesto

29 Aug

My darling son starts kindergarten this week. Yikes!

And I go back to the classroom to teach next week. Double Yikes!

Drying blanched basil

I look upon school food with deep suspicion; I haven’t spent the last five years nurturing a good and healthy eater only to surrender him to the deep fryer as well as the public education system. And for myself, I refuse to waste $10 a day or more eating lunch out when I can eat better for less in the comfort of my office, listening to Pandora and checking my emails. Continue reading →

Tags: back to school recipes, basil, cooking, cooking with kids, food, freezeable, pasta sauce, pesto, recipes, summer, vegan, vegetarian

Comments 10 Comments
Categories CSA, Food, Recipes, sauce, Vegan, Vegetarian

Blackberry Bonanza: Syrup, Martini, and Lemon Iced Tea (plus a lesson in empirical evidence)

27 Aug

There is currently a beautiful blackberry crop at Restoration Farm (our C.S.A.) and there’s nothing more fun than walking down to the berry patch and picking a pint or quart of berries with your kid in a bucolic colonial setting.

You know which berries are ready because they are dark, dark, dark (which I suppose explains why they are called blackberries; I am a genius) and also, when you are harvesting, the ripe ones don’t resist a very gentle tug, but slip right off the bush into your fingers sans stem and core. If they resist, it is not because they are being difficult, but because they simply do not want to deliver themselves to you at anything less than their peak. Continue reading →

Tags: berries, blackberries, blackberry, cocktails, cooking, flavored iced tea, food, making syrup, martini, recipe

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Cocktails, CSA, Food, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

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¡Comida Hispana! Recipes to unleash your inner Latino

Mango Mojitos With Ancho Chili Salt

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