This is barely a recipe, but it’s what I have been eating for breakfast and lunch (and sometimes in between with a cup of tea).
I like it with rye toast (shown here), but it reaches its apex with white bread….
Toast and butter two slices of bread. Layer thinly-sliced cucumber (peeling is optional) and tomato – preferably fresh from the garden – on the bottom slice. Sprinkle with salt and top with the second slice. Cut in half and eat!
Have you ever seen the MTV show “Pimp My Ride” where a beat-up, tin-can of a vehicle gets a total tarted-up makeover- complete with features like aquariums and shoe racks and hydraulic surfboard lifters?
Well, sometimes I like to play culinary “Pimp My____________(fill in the blank with your favorite, but somewhat tired go-to everyday recipe).” You know, take a dull salad and add grilled shrimp and fruit, or top your morning toast with salmon and creme fraiche, or add truffle oil to any old thing to make it special.
The Chinese make cracks in eggs before hard-boiling in tea to make "1,000 year old eggs" -- that's my excuse for the rather oddly-colored post-Easter eggs you see here...
In honor of the ridiculous number of luridly-dyed hard-boiled eggs in my post-Easter fridge, today’s episode is “Pimp My Egg Salad.” Just add a number of tasty pantry items to a normal egg salad and voila! You have a hottie-hottie, hot-hot, lunch where before sat a bland and boring boiled egg.
By the way, to boil eggs perfectly, set them in cold water that covers by an inch. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, cover and allow to sit for ten minutes. Drain and shock the eggs in ice water (to help the peeling later). Using eggs that are not farm-fresh will make them easier to peel (more air between shell and membrane).
Look closely and you'll see that blue color....
Egg Salad…Amped
4 hard-boiled eggs
2 Tbs mayonnaise
1-2 tsps prepared mustard
1 tsp minced red onion (optional)
1 tsp capers, drained
Five large pitted black olives, sliced
1 Tbs roasted red pepper, diced
Salt to taste
Dash of sriracha or other hot sauce (optional)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Salt to taste and add hot sauce if desired. Serve in a sandwich on toast or atop a salad.
A different take on tuna salad; zippy for lunch during Lent!
In a bit of a hurry to make my brown bag lunch, I banged together some tuna salad, but without mayonnaise (although a dab of mayo would go well too!). This is one of my favorites for a picnic lunch any time, but as a Catholic during Lent, when fish is de riguer for Fridays, this is a true friend. I usually have it on salad, but you can sandwich it, wrap it, stuff it in a pita, mound it on crackers…very flexible! If you have ripe avocado, slice it up and add it to whichever way you are serving the tuna. The cool blandness plays well with the tangy tuna.
Tuna and Caper Salad
1 5 oz can tuna (whichever you prefer; because I am a maniac, I buy sustainably-caught), drained
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp your favorite prepared mustard
1 Tbs red onion, chopped fine
1 Tbs capers, drained
1 Tbs roasted red pepper (optional)
Whisk oil and vinegar together with a fork until blended. Stir in mustard. Pour over tuna, add red onion and mix well. Stir in capers and red pepper, if desired. Serve over green salad with chunks of avocado, or in sandwiches, with avocado slices.
Eight fresh eggs*
3 Tbs mayonnaise
1 Tbs non-fat or low-fat plain yogurt
1 Tbs your favorite mustard
Pinch of salt/pinch of cayenne pepper/sprinkle of parsley/grating of pepper, if desired
Place eggs in a pot with cold water to cover. Bring the water to a boil. Lower heat to simmer for five minutes, then cover and remove from heat. Leave covered for ten minutes, then drain and soak in ice water. The yolk turns green from overcooking, so if you find that your yolks are turning green, next time skip the simmer, remove from heat and let sit covered for 15 minutes.
When the eggs are cooled, crack them and peel. Chop roughly and place in bowl. Add mayo, yogurt and mustard and mix well. Play around with the amount of wet ingredients until you get it the way you like. Season to taste and serve on crackers, toast or salad.
*(if you are not sure whether your eggs are fresh, put them in water to cover. A fresh egg will sink. A fresh-enough egg will float up on one end while the other end stays on the bottom. A rotten egg will float.
Also, I purchase organic eggs regularly and farmer’s market/friend’s eggs when I can get them. Large-scale egg production in this country is way out of scale with what is safe. I don’t want to be the heavy on this one, so if you are interested, you can visit food expert Marion Nestle’s blog and read it for yourself. http://www.foodpolitics.com/tag/eggs/ In any case, if you are buying conventional/supermarket eggs, please cook them thoroughly )
You are just four ingredients away from happiness.
Roasted eggplant and friends on whole wheat English muffin. Don't worry about the verticality; it smushes down to a reasonable, biteable size.
Take Back the Lunch (a poem)
There are those who enjoy
spending money they don’t have,
to wait with time they don’t have,
for a food order that they don’t really love,
cooked by people who don’t love them,
to choke down
during what remains of their precious lunch hour.
I am not one of those.
Are you?
Yeah your takeaway order may be tasty and juicy, but do you really know what you’re eating?
Yeah, a $6.99 lunch special may seem like a good deal, but does it tell you how special and important you are, the way a home-cooked meal does? Of course not.
So at least once this week, try to make yourself a home-cooked lunch that gives you a nutritional hug (or make enough of it for dinner that you have leftovers the next day).
I make this pretty often in winter; it’s a cross between an antipasto and a sandwich and is pretty cheap! I am admittedly not great at crunching numbers, but if I get a pound of eggplant at $3; a 1/2 lb. of feta at $1.80 (Costco bulk); and 8 sundried tomatoes at Fairway for about $2 – I’ve paid about $7 total (plus a bit for side stuff) and then I make four meals for myself out of it…well you do the numbers and tell me it doesn’t beat the bejesus out of the steak and broccoli lunch special at Asian Kitchen…
So please, please, please…show yourself some love and try this really, really, really easy and delicious sandwich/wrap thing really soon. You can skip the bread if you are watching carbs!
Roasted Eggplant with Feta and Sundried tomatoes
1 lb eggplant (or two if you want to make extra for the week), wiped clean and sliced into ¼ inch rounds*
2 Tbsp olive oil per pound eggplant
8 oz feta cheese, sliced fairly thin
8-10 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Drain slightly and slice into thin strips
(optional – if your sundried tomatoes don’t come with seasonings, use a tsp or more of dried herbs – oregano, basil, thyme, or other Mediterranean flavors are best)
Wrap-style bread, pitas or hearty thick toasted bread slices
Preheat oven to 350°. Dip eggplant into (or brush with) olive oil until well-coated. Lay eggplant as flat as possible in oven dishes and bake for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally, until eggplant is tender (I consider this a craft that is best learned by experience. Fortunately for me, I like my eggplant slightly browned, ‘cause I always seem to cook the hell out of it before it’s truly done. Don’t worry about a bit of overcooking.)
When the eggplant is done, place a layer of rounds on your chosen bread. Top with feta and sundried tomatoes (and herbs, if desired). Roll up, if using a wrap-style bread. Toast for a few minutes in a toaster oven or under the broiler and serve (reheats well with a blast in the office microwave).
*Notes: if you have time, sprinkle the slices with a pinch or two of salt, put in a colander and put a weighted bowl on top to squeeze out extra moisture – it becomes less absorbent that way – 15-30 minutes. This step is not really necessary with really tight-skinned, firm, fresh eggplant).
I do a lot of eggplant at a time and either eat it this way all week, or strip the rounds of peel and stir into hummous or just eat it out of the fridge when I need a snack. Can be chopped and added to red sauce for pasta! You can also substitute other roasted veg.
Great food - Simply
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