green peppers & egg sandwiches
12 Feb 2008 2 Comments
in bell pepper, eggs, vegetarian Tags: breakfast, Chicago, cooking for one, eggs, italian cooking, Italy, olive oil, sandwich, skillet
This is one of my favorite sandwiches because I can get everything local and because it is something my family made for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I was growing up. My grandpa and great uncle grew up in a Sicilian family who immigrated via New Orleans to Chicago. Uncle Ronnie was a butcher, so these sandwiches followed dinners of Italian sausage and peppers and the leftovers went with the eggs. Now they follow sausage-free meals when I sauté an extra pepper or two or they emerge on their own, worth the work of slicing a pepper.
For two sandwiches or one generous sandwich (a good idea):
slice 1 green pepper into strips and sauté in olive oil on medium-high heat until soft and slightly charred about 15-20 minutes. Scoop the cooked peppers into a bowl
slice a hand’s length from a loaf of Italian bread (or baguette) and cut that in ½ lengthwise.
rub the cut sides into the oil in the skillet and fry till toasted. Weighing down the bread will flatten it and more deeply toast it. I often use my tea kettle or another cast iron skillet.
whisk an egg or two with a little cream and a little salt & pepper. Scramble in the skillet.
assemble eggs, peppers on the baguette and sandwich. Eat.
If you are upset by how the egg and pepper squidges out the sides, try hollowing out your bread a little.
quick curried peanut sauce for many veggies
03 Jan 2008 Leave a Comment
in artichoke, broccoli, eggplant, garlic, poems, potatoes, recipes, string beans, vegan, vegetarian Tags: cooking, cooking for one, curry, peanut butter, sauce, weeknight dinner
chop one medium yellow sweet onion, and smash, peel, and mince a few cloves of garlic. Peel and mince a half inch of fresh ginger.
sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Stir in the ginger along with a teaspoon of curry powder and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Stir in about three teaspoons of sesame oil and three tablespoons of Braggs or tamari sauce.
glop in a cup of peanut butter, and whisk in boiling hot water in a thin stream to bring the mixture to a saucey consistency.
prepare the veggies of your choice: fairy tale eggplant sliced in half and roasted; purple potatoes halved, par boiled and fried; steamed baby artichokes; bell pepper and broccoli sauté; string beans. What’s in season?
miso awesome soup
26 Dec 2007 2 Comments
in greens, mushrooms, recipes, soup, vegan Tags: asian cooking, ceramic bowl, chopsticks, cooking for one, everything & anything, garlic, ginger, london, miso, noodles, radical muffins love good food, weeknight dinner
The amounts here are for a generous bowl for one voracious feminista yogi. This soup is quite adaptable by size – feed your feminista yogi flock!
Bring a pot of water to boil and cook a handful of udon noodles. The corner health mart carries an organic brand that comes in 8 oz packets with three bundles of noodles, and one bundle is just right amount for a big bowl. (One big bowl eating is typically friendly cooking for one eater, one broke but taste-conscious eater. Those inspired, sexy soups, pastas, and salads you whip up for dates with your one true one want a roomy, gorgeous bowl. Right now my favorite is a ceramic piece that heats up comfortingly in my lap when I sit cross legged on the couch. This bowl, runny with glaze in cinnamon, oatmeal and cream, is my flat mate’s handmade treasure. I gotta find my own perfect piece; I will let you know how the quest goes.)
Slice two or three scallions (green onions). Peel and mince an inch of ginger and two cloves of garlic. Slice three or four thin slices of chili. Chili is highly subjective; know thyself.
In a medium sized sauce pan, heat a few teaspoons of vegetable oil and sesame oil. When a flick of water sizzles in the oil, lower the heat and add the chili, garlic, ginger, and scallions along with some sea salt and black pepper. Add two to four tablespoons of tamari.
Clean off your mushrooms—any kind you like, of course. I used the smallest possible shitakes and creminis, carefully de-stemmed and cleaned with a paper towel. Sauté the mushrooms briefly in the fiery oil, about five minutes, until their heads are glistening and glossy brown.
Pour broth over the frying mushrooms, about 3 cups. Bring broth to a boil.
Halve a lemon. Snip a cup or so of watercress and add it to your bowl.
Lower heat and with the soup at a low simmer, squeeze in the lemon juice from both halves and stir in two tablespoons of miso. Bring back to a fine simmer and pour over the delicate greens.
I eat this with two tools: chopsticks and a big, shallow spoon.
doctored-up tomato soup (for jay)
27 Feb 2007 1 Comment
in garlic, onion, recipes, soup, vegan Tags: cooking for one, paprika, simple cooking
ingredients
tomato soup – either one box (typically 32 fluid ounces or 1 quart), which does not need water added, or one can of condensed soup (15 fluid ounces), which will need a can of water stirred into it
½ an onion – red or yellow; save the other half for something else
2 cloves of garlic – a bulb is the whole little head you buy; the cloves are the fingers of the garlic fist
paprika – spice
olive oil
Peel and chop the onion. To do this, slice off the scraggly top and the bottom. Sit your onion on one of these flat ends on the cutting board and slice it down the center so you have two halves. Peel off the papery outer layer. Lay each half flat on the cutting board and slice the onion into ribbons then turn the onion half and cut across your slices to make cubes. If you cut the slices very thin, you can just use those and not cut again. That makes for a pretty soup.
Peel and mince the garlic. To do this, rub the outermost papery layer off your garlic bulb. Pull off two cloves (more if you want it really garlicky). Smash the garlic still in its skin under the flat side of your knife. The skin will rumple and be easy to peel right off. Cut off the dry stem end and then chop the garlic finely.
On the stove top, heat a little olive oil (about 2 teaspoons) in a pot over a medium flame. Add about 2 teaspoons of paprika, the garlic and the onion. Stirring every few minutes, cook until the onions are translucent about 10 minutes. Careful about how high the heat is – you don’t want the garlic to brown.
Add the soup, the box or the can & water. Stir, heat and eat!
Of course, this recipe is just an idea. You don’t have to have paprika, right? Leave it out or try other spices or herbs like dried oregano. There are lots of good ways to make simple soup more exciting and use it as a vehicle for more veggies! Try adding spinach, a can of chick peas, or left over broccoli from another dinner.
