RLASKEY: words

I’m not so wonderful with the naming of these things.. but as Juliet says, what’s in a name? So far the current date has worked out rather well.

Tonight, I followed much in the same methods as last week, though I was aiming for something much less sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 heads of broccoli
• 1 pound spinach
• 4 ounces of TVP
• Red lentils
• Soy sauce
• Balsamic vinegar (less than the amount of soy sauce)
• Dried chopped coconut (enough to sprinkle over food)
• Turmeric
• Ginger powder
• Paprika

Method

I started early with the onions in a very small sprinkling of oil in the pan (OK, I used some spray oil for the first time today, too, but who’s counting; just less oil than normal). Lots of soy sauce to start out, probably more than you’d think you want. Pan to medium-high heat.

While this is going, put the red lentils in a second pot with some water, more than enough to cover them, and then heat on high. You can cover the lentils in order to have them heat faster, though at some point you can take it off and let it boil for a while. I’ve heard a lot of different tricks for lentils, but my personal thought is to just have enough water in there and have em boil and cook, eventually uncovered, for somewhere around 10-15 minutes. It’ll be ready when you can bite into them without crunching. Here, the lentils will also be cooking later in the entire mix, too, though they certainly shouldn’t be hard when you put them in the main pan.

While the lentils are cooking, the onions in the main pan should warm for about five minutes, at which point you can add in the broccoli. The trick with onions is that they’re ready when they turn translucent, so this should probably be happening before continuing.

Add in the coconut. I didn’t add in a lot, and you can put more in if you like the flavor, though it should be a subtle part to the dish so be careful not to go overboard. Around this time, add in the turmeric, ginger powder, and a small amount of paprika. All the quantities should be rather small at first, since you can easily add more in later. I also added in some balsamic after a bit of time, though just enough to even out what’s going on in the pan. The TVP can now be put into the mix. As the TVP soaks up a lot of the water, you can now balance the amount of flavor by adding in more water and then more of the turmeric and paprika. Paprika is a very strong spice, so it can easily be overdone, though the turmeric helps level things out a bit.

As the lentils are done (soft), add this in, keep stirring rather often, and continue to add more water and spices (turmeric + paprika). Heat should be on high. Spinach can go in while this is all happening, since it doesn’t need all that long to cook. Continue to balance, adding in what it seems to need in terms of smell, continue on for about ten minutes, and you’re looking at a pretty decent final meal. I ate mine with some white rice, though again you can also do brown rice or pasta or whatever else.

This is my first time writing about food. Stir-fry is about the only thing I cook often, though I manage to keep it fresh enough by varying things here and there. I was in the mood for something a bit different, so I made up the following:

Ingredients

• 1 apple (used a Gala here, but whatever you like)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 pound of baby carrots
• 1 pound tofu, firm as you can get
• 1 tablespoon of ginger powder (or none, if you don’t like it)
• Extra virgin olive oil (just enough to coat pan)
• Textured vegetable protein, AKA TVP (about same quantity as tofu)
• Balsamic vinegar (a reasonable amount)
• Soy sauce (less than the amount of vinegar)
• Raw sugar (to your liking)

Method

Start with the olive oil, along with a small amount of soy sauce and a fair amount of vinegar, at medium-low heat. Then add in the apple, cut into very small pieces. Wait a few minutes so the pan can think about the apples and make them warm. You know you’ve added too much soy sauce or vinegar at this point if you are unable to smell anything apple-related. Heat should be around medium.

Next comes the onion and the carrots, both chopped at a small but not ridiculously small size. Get the heat up to medium-high, then add the sugar. In Starbucks terms, we’re talking somewhere on the order of four or five packets-worth, unless you love/hate sugar in which case vary accordingly. There should always be some some sauce (liquid) at the bottom of the pan, and you should constantly be smelling to get a sense of what proportions you have in there. Ginger powder can go in at this step (or earlier, if you want it to be more prominent).

After about ten minutes of cooking, you can then toss in the TVP. The carrots may not be cooked quite as much as you’d like it by this point, in which case a) go for a longer time at medium heat, or b) pre-cook the carrots a bit more. TVP soaks up most of the liquid in the pan since it can generally take on twice its volume in water. Add in some extra vinegar or soy sauce, to smell, especially if there is no sauce left. Tofu, cubed, can now go in the mix. Heat level should be medium-high to high, as long as there is always enough sauce at the bottom of the pan at all times.

As with any stir-fry, you’re only doing half the job if you never stir what’s in the pan. Move things around enough so that it’s heated evenly, and that nothing is getting burned.

Stir-fry disclaimer

There’s a reasonable amount of ambiguity in the above, though I’m not doing that to just be a jerk. The exact amounts do not particularly matter. It is much more important to use your nose to direct the amounts in the way that you like. In the worst case, be conservative and turn down the heat. Let the mixture warm enough, stir everything around, and smell. If you do not smell what you are making, it most likely will not come out any good.

This is my first real time experimenting with the above combination, and it came out really, really well. I placed the final result on a re-heated (microwaved) bed of white rice, though I’m sure it’d work well with pasta or on its own.