The snow has kept me away from the grocery store. We typically drive, and until this morning the car was impacted in a sidewalk and street spanning glacier. Thanks to our freezer, we’ve been eating pretty well: turkey meatballs, pizza, chicken soup, and chickpea cashew curry have all made appearances during the blizzard and its aftermath. Right now, I have a container labeled “porky bean stock” and two containers of pork and beans defrosting for black bean soup later tonight. Around lunch time I stood staring into the refrigerator, trying to will the remaining items there to coalesce into a quick easy dish. The cup of leftover rice from cashew curry night stood out. As did two fat broccoli stalks leftover from a recipe that uses just florets. I’ll describe my something-from-nothing “recipe” after the jump.
First, I prepped. I peeled, halved and thinly sliced the broccoli stalks. I minced about a tablespoon of onion (I would have rather had scallions), a half inch piece of ginger, and a garlic clove. In a small bowl, I combined about 2 tablespoons of water with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, a half teaspoon of shriracha (I would have rather had a fresh chili of some kind), a teaspoon of corn starch, and a splash of rice vinegar and whisked until smooth. I set that aside. I roughly chopped a handful of peanuts.
When everything, such as it was, was prepped, I put my big nonstick skillet with a teaspoon of vegetable oil in it over medium-high heat. I add the sliced broccoli stems in an even layer. When they started to color, I added the garlic-onion-ginger mix and stirred for about 10 seconds. Then I added the rice, peanuts, and sauce and stirred frantically until everything was hot but nothing was burned.
It was nothing special. It could have used egg, cilantro, other vegetables, tofu, etc. But I pulled it together for myself in less than 10 minutes from stuff that would have probably otherwise been thrown away. Well, at least the broccoli and rice were in danger of meeting the landfill. And it was a very tasty lunch, far better than more complicated stir fries I’ve ordered as takeout lunches at many office jobs. Home cooking doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming to be worthwhile.
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Yum…
To think that I’m always bemoaning the fact that I’ve never touched snow! I actually love brocolli stems – the tops for some reason, give me the heebie-jeebies
I usually feed everyone else the fluffy tops and save the stems for myself, usually to eat very lightly blanched, with some ranch dressing and toasted almonds – my favourite broccoli recipe. I hope the weather lets up for you, but I think that somehow, Joy, you’d be alright, even on a desert island with nothing but coconut trees and the sea : ) Btw, the stir fry sounds a lot like something my grandmother used to do when our cupboard was almost bare too, and it was always lovely. Take care!
This reminds me of my go-to recipe when I need to clean out the produce drawer:
Toss some cut-up chicken breast with corn starch and salt and pepper, stirfry in oil, remove. Add chopped carrots, celery and onion, plus whatever else is withering away in the fridge. When tender, add chicken back.
In a small bowl, add some soy sauce and sherry to some minced garlic, ginger if i have it, and red pepper flakes, maybe a splash of rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Pour into pan and bring to boil, toss to coat. Voila. Dinner in about as long as it takes to chop up some leftover soup vegetables.
Love your header, btw – Sam did a wonderful job.