Posts
But sometimes I rise to better things. When I was in college, I often made brown rice, black beans, and salsa, a combination suggested by my friend Peter and facilitated by the fancy rice cooker I bought from him on his emigration to New Zealand. Cheap, easy, and light, kind of like me.
I made it again last week, while Marina was on vacation, but instead of salsa, I sliced up an apple. It proved a good combination, feeding me for three nights. I was kind of surprised at how quickly the apple slices took on a brownish tinge once I cut them, browning with almost as much unbridled enthusiasm as the padron peppers showed in shriveling out of the frying pan last week.
It was quite nice, the warmth of the rice and beans combining well with the cool juice of the apple.
What similarly simple meals do you like to prepare?
3 comments:
Slivered carrot, cabbage, bagged mung beans, and tofu that has been marinating in a soy sauce/ginger powder/garlic tonic for about 30 minutes. Fry over high heat in an oil of your choice, then top off with a bit of fish sauce and sesame oil. When served over left-over rice, it's filling and only dirties one pan. It's not quite as cheap as black beans and rice, but it's still a full meal for under $1.50 and the ingredients are all long-lifers in the fridge. You can easily substitute egg for tofu if you don't have tofu.
Nice! I'm glad you're still making use of the rice cooker! I swear, if I had to give up all but one cooking appliance, the rice cooker would be the last to go. I've baked bread in a rice cooker. I really like the sound of the apple with the black beans and rice! I bet the sweetness of the apples does a good job of complementing the savory beans and rice.
If you're feeling cheeky and want to massively boost the nutrition of your brown rice, you can follow these instructions at Instructables. A while back the UN sponsored a bunch of research on rice given that so much of the world's population subsists on the stuff. The seriously awesome benefits of germination were one bit to come out of that. I can wholeheartedly endorse the green tea suggestion in the Instructables posting, as it makes the whole process much more forgiving (not to mention that it helps bolster the levels of GABBA in your germinated brown rice). I don't mess with any heat source to germinate. I've found leaving it covered on top of the fridge works perfectly.
One idea that Roni and I have been playing with is to start buying a box of produce by delivery. The veggies are organic, seasonal, and entirely luck of the draw. We figure this will force us to learn to cook more and different veggies. Also, your local asian grocery is a fun place to buy veggies--especially the crazy looking ones that you don't recognize. We've found some true gems that way.
Keep up the awesome, Devin!
Mmm, I just read today that black beans are one of the most nutritious things around. I'm intrigued about the germinating rice idea - that seems it might make it better for me (with my more or less diabetic diet requirement). I expect you know that you can prevent apple slices from browning by applying lemon juice, but that would alter the flavor, so maybe not worth while!
Post a Comment