30 in 30: Day 20 -- A Recipe

[fivecats]

Lake Johnson View
January 2010 Raleighwood, NC
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Day 21→A recipe

A recipe? Oh, yeah, sure. Like I don't know you're just trying to get the family Pumpkin Pie recipe out of me. Like I'm really dumb enough to fall for that innocent "oh, it's just Day 21's blog topic!" kinda stuff. Right.

Not having been born yesterday I'll have to come up with something else. How about tonight's dinner?

If you're not interested, the top part of this LJ cut was for you. If you are interested, simply

As with most dinners, there's no set recipe, no carefully measured ingredients. I just cook.

Software
As much fresh ginger as will fit into the palm of your hand.
Not nearly enough fresh green beans (but they looked like close to enough when bagging them in the grocery store)
One block of firm tofu
The remaining black and white button mushrooms from last night (about 2 cups worth of chopped 'shrooms)
Lots of beer
Canola oil
Red Thai Curry Paste
Thin Chinese Shrimp Egg Noodles

Hardware
Two pots of boiling water
One large cast iron skillet
One large teflon skillet (substitute a second large cast iron skillet if you're lucky enough to have one)
Vegetable peeler

The Process
Have loving wife snap the ends off of the green beans. Boil beans in water for about 10 minutes or until tender.

Peel the skin off of the ginger. Disparage over the fact that the ginger somehow got frozen and then defrosted itself in the refrigerator.

Drown ginger sorrows and disappointment in beer.

Pour oil into hot cast iron skillet; pour more oil into hot teflon pan.

Slice ginger into sections. Put 2/3 into the teflon pan and move around vigorously. You don't want to burn the ginger, you want to infuse the oil with lots of gingery goodness.

Cut tofu into 1/2" cubes. Or try. Drink more beer and decide that the tofu can pretty danged well take care of it's own danged self. Life is too short to be concerned over the proper size of friggin' tofu cubes.

Drink more beer to celebrate this hard-won knowledge.

Realize that ginger in the teflon pan still needs to be stirred around. Raise the glass of beer to the ginger, toasting it's insistence upon constant attention.

Realize that beer was far too short lived and pour another.

Boil the noodles for 3 minutes. Drain well. Pour cooked & drained noodles into the teflon pan. Turn over repeatedly for the next 10+ minutes allowing the outside of the noodle clumps to become wonderfully, gingerly crispy.

Toss remaining ginger into the hot, oiled cast iron skillet. Move ginger around well to infuse oil. Add tofu.

Drain green beans. When the tofu starts to brown, toss in the green beans.

Add a spoonful of the red thai curry sauce to the beans & tofu. Stir well. Add another half spoonful of red thai curry sauce. Stir well again.

Consider adding a touch of beer to the beans/tofu mix. Decide against that idea. Drink beer instead.

Realize the mushrooms really don't work with this meal after all. Leave on kitchen counter for wife to comment on later.

Place plates in a 200ºF oven for about 5 minutes to warm up the plates. (Putting hot food on a cold plate is like taking a perfectly fried piece of fish and drowning it in malt vinegar. One or the other, please!)

Finish beer while admiring another dinner ready to be served.

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Comments

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

Sounds good!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

and quick. and beer. :)

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[zeppo-marx.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of tofu..... but I can certainly appreciate the amuont of beer required for a recipe such as this!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

tofu = protein. as a vegetarian, i need alternate protein sources.

cut in to small cubes and tossed in with the ginger & oil it takes on a fair amount of the ginger flavour.

i grew up watching Graham Kerr, "The Galloping Gourmet" on tv. he always cooked with a huge glass of wine. i completely credit him with my doing the same (or something similar).

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[velvetink.livejournal.com]

I'm not a cook but it sounds ok, though I prefer fairly plain friend tofu - the hard sort. I like the drink beer part!

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

fried!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

fried beer?

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[velvetink.livejournal.com]

lol.... I made a typo...wrote friend tofu.

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

on the other hand, I've used beer in batter for fried fish and it turned out pretty good...(one of my rare culinary experiments.).

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

it was one of those throw-together-whatever-is-in-the-fridge kinda night.

beer was definitely in the fridge.

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[velvetink.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I dislike cooking. It wasn't a strong point of my mothers so I never learned how to really. Except when I worked in a pub and made 27 kinds of salads. So pretty much every meal here is a throw it together event and if it doesn't work - off to get takeaway (which is probably why my diet isn't working). by the way I found McCourts memoir 'Tis in a op shop the other day. And darn am really relating a lot even though I wasn't born in Limerick..my Irish ancestors have a lot to answer for.

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

ps did I mention I love the reflections in this photo.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

i'm rather fond of them as well.

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