Quick Meals
Thanks to Whole Foods this craveworthy paring can bed kept on hand in your freezer for
one of those inevitable meals on a whim that you can whip up in no time.
Once cooked these tuna burgers are plump, juicy, and flavor sum and more so when topped with a heady wasabi mayo and tucked into these lightly toasted soft pretzel buns.
No recipe required other than a few preparation tips that follow.
Plan ahead and thaw out the tuna burgers and buns to room temperature.
Wasabi mayo:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise            Â
- 1 generous tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 0r 2 teaspoons wasabi paste (available in tubes)
- a meager splash of soy sauce
Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
Lightly toast the sliced soft pretzel buns, interior sides up, and set aside.
Sparingly glaze a non stick pan or grill pan with oil. Set the pan over medium low heat. Add the tuna burgers and cook for about 2 minutes. Flip the burger and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Flip once again and press the tops lightly. When the tops feels just firm the burgers are done.
Spread a little wasabi mayo on the bottom halves of the buns and place the burgers on top. Top the burgers with a generous dollop of wasabi mayo, add the tops of the buns and serve.
Suggested: Serve the tuna burgers with a crisp seasonal salad dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper.
This is a lovely quick meal that you will find yourself returning to again and again!
Stir frying is hands down the best way to cook a quick meal using the season’s freshest produce. I’ve been stir frying all summer long an I intend to carry on doing so with fall’s hardier produce bounty.
Stir frying is Asia’s gift for anyone who loves to kook and for all those they may be cooking for. A seasonal stir fry never fails to deliver a gorgeous healthy meal with complex flavors, textures, color, and aromas. A few helpful tips is all that’s required for success.
I’m sure you’ve seen the cooks in Chinese restaurants at their stations tossing ingredients in a big woks set over licking flames and clouds of aromatic smoke. All well and good, but you too can produce the same results in your very own kitchen sans the pyrotechnics!
Stir frying does requires Intense heat, but I’ve found that gas, electric, and induction heat all deliver the heat required if you are using a proper wok. An inexpensive carbon steel wok made in China or a domestic upgraded version is going to give you the best results. Carbon steel responds instantly to the heat source and the bigger the better because you are going to be throwing lots of vegetables and leafy greens into that fired up wok! The more hot surface space the better the results.
A trip to your local Asian market may also be required, but with the following list of basic ingredients on hand you will be set to go!
- soy sauce
- oyster sauce
- fish sauce
- Chinese cooking wine
- Chinese lap Chong dry sausage
- Thai basil
- Â jasmine rice
With fall’s arrival seize the moment and expand your produce choices including baby Brussels sprouts, squash, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages, kale, mushrooms and anything else that strikes your fancy.
An Impromptu Fall Stir Fry
Successful Stir frying is all about preparation and organization. Arrange all of your ingredients and cooking utensils within reach before you begin and you are set to go!
As mentioned use a large carbon steel wok or if not a large heavy bottomed skillet.
Ingredients
- Two of the vegetables in this recipe quire some per-preparation as follows.I pint baby Brussels sprouts, trimmed and d steamed al dent, and set aside to used in the stir fry later.
- ½ Napa cabbage, core removed, thinly sliced, placed in a bowl wit water to cover, and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes and drained before stir frying.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 links Lap Chong Chinese dry sausage, thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 2 small brown onions, peeled, halved, thinly sliced, and separated
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
- 6 red and yellow baby sweet bell peppers, trimmed, seeded, and cut into thin strips
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced, and cut into thine strips
- 2 or 3 small fresh hot chiles, trimmed, seeded, and minced
- 2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh ginger root cut into thin strips
- 2 large bunches Bok Choy, trimmed, leaves halved on the diagonal
- Â 1/3 cup Chinese rose cooking wine, or white wine
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce / more to taste
- soy sauce to taste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- ½ cup chopped Thai basil leaves, or sweet basil
- juice from 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon cold water
- Jasmine rice for serving
Place the wok directly over the heat source on medium high. Add the oil and swirl the wok. Add the sausage and stir fry while continuously tossing until the sausage begins to color around the edges. Add the onions and fry while tossing until the onions begin to wilt. Add the carrots and continue tossing until the carrots begin to wilt. Add the sweet peppers and then the garlic, chiles, and ginger and continue tossing.
Slowly add the Chinese cooking wine and toss vigorously until most of the wine has been absorbed.
Drain the cabbage and add to the wok and toss until it wilts. Then add the Bok Choy and toss continuously until the leaves are wilted. Then add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, and fish sauce while continuously tossing.
At tis point if the wok is nearly dry add a half cup of water and continue stir frying. Toss in the Thai basil and the steamed baby Brussels sprouts and continue tossing.
If you want to thicken the liquid in the pan, stir the cold water into the corn starch and stir. Then pour into the stir the stir and continue stir fry until the liquid thickens, about 3 minutes.
Finally stir in the lime juice and stir to combine just before serving.
Serve the stir fry with freshly steamed jasmine rice.
Leftovers , not to worry. Reheat in a saute pan or microwave!
Corn muffins with grilled corn, jalapenos, and cheddar
Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix is as American as apple pie. It is just one of those staples that everyone has turned to in a pinch at onetime or another. Myself included during my art school days when cooking was limited to quick serviceable meals that had nothing to do with cuisine. That was to came along later in my life.
That said, Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix is a staple created by Mabel White Holmes back in 1930. The Holmes family still owns the company and he original cheerful blue and yellow packaging has remained mostly unchanged ever since. Whenever I see a box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix on the shelf I just can’t resist picking one up! Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix has been a dependable partner for countless quick yummy corn muffin hacks I’ve whipped up over the years.
Summer is after all about grilled meals and corn muffins are always a perfect comfort food accompaniment! The recipe that follows is a tried and true favorite of mine that requires very little time to make and these muffins are always a huge hit.
Corn Muffins with grilled corn, jalapenos, and cheddar cheese.
Makes 8 muffins
Grease a muffin tin with melted butter
preheat oven to 450 f / 245 c
Ingredients:
- 1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin mixÂ
- 1large organic egg
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk
- a pinch of salt
- 1 cup grilled corn kernelsÂ
- 1or 2 grilled jalapenos, skin and seeds removed, and minced
- ¾ cup coarsely grated cheddar cheese, divided
Place the corn muffin mix in a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Add the egg and whisk briefly. Then whisk in the buttermilk and salt. Fold the ingredients together just until they come together using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.
Add the corn and jalapenos and fold them into the batter without over mixing. A few lumps are fine.
Then fold in ½ cup of the cheddar cheese and set the batter aside to rest for 15 minutes.
Fill each muffin cup ¾ full and top off with the remaining cheddar.
Bake for 15 or 20 minutes until the muffins are lightly golden brown.
Serve warm, with pats of butter (optional)
from Nigella Lawson’s new book  Cook, Eat, Repeat
Nigella’s recipe for Fish Stick Bhorta, inspired by controversial British journalist and political activist Ash Sarkar’s Fish Finger Bhorta, is
sure to dust up some controversy of its own in the media, but no matter. Nigella has this uncanny way with words that turn her books and recipes into a page turners! Her inquisitive enthusiasm for food and cookery is nothing short of compelling for anyone who loves to cook and eat.
I am sure you are asking yourself, as did I, what is a Bhorta anyway? The short answer is a Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Indian highly seasoned mashed up of vegetables stir-fried together in mustard oil. That description is most likely not going to convince you to give this recipe a try, but I was won over on the first go around.
Cook, Eat, Repeat was written during the pandemic and focuses on inventive home coked meals for one or two people, with ample leftovers, made with what is on hand. Cooking your way through a year of relative isolation has had its challenges as well as its rewards for all of us. But having had the time to experiment, savor, and reflect on how and what we eat and how we prepare our food enriched our daily lives during a year of uncertainty. Â
Fish Stick Bhorta
Serves 2 with some leftovers
For the pickled onions, make in advance
- ½ red onion
- red wine vinegar or lime juice
Make your pink-pickled onions as far in advance as you can: at least 2 hours and up to 24. Cut your red onion in half- or use a whole onion if you prefer, as you will easily find yourself adding them to much else- into fine half moons. Put these in a jar with a lid, or simply into a bowl that you can cover. Pour over red wine vinegar (or lime juice) pressing down the onions until they are all just immured. Put the lid on the jar or cover the bowl and leave the onions to steep.
For the Bhorta
- 2 regular onions (approx. 10 ounces)
- 2 small red (birds eye) chiles
- 2 fat cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 12 fish sticks
- 3 tablespoons cold pressed vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons English mustard ( Colman’s) from a jar
- 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt or kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt)
- 4 oz young spinach
- 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons roughly chipped cilantro, plus more to serve
preheat the oven to 425 f
Peel and slice your 2 regular onions into fine half moons, seed the chiles (or not if you prefer) and slice them thinly, and peel the garlic. Peel the ginger and grate it finely to give 1 tablespoonful.
When the oven is hot, and your ingredients are assembled and ready, put the fish sticks on a baking sheet and cook for approx. 20 to 25 minutes, which may be slightly longer than the package directs, but will ensure the bread crumb coating is really crisp.
Meanwhile warm the oil in a large skillet or wok, and cook the onions over medium low for 20 minutes stirring regularly, by witch time they will be pale gold and soft.
Add the sliced chiles and cook, string all the while, for 3 minutes, then stir in the grated ginger, minced or grated garlic, and cook, still stirring, for another 2 minutes. Spoon in the mustard and salt, stirring to combine, then add the spinach leaves and let them wilt in the pan for 2- 3 minutes, stirring regularly, then squeeze in the juice of the lime.
Take the pan off the heat while you get the fish sticks. Break them up a bit with a spatula then add them to the frying pan or wok. Toss everything together, breaking up them up further and mashing them into the frying pan, then sprinkle in the cilantro.
Serve topped with the pink-pickled onions, adding extra chopped cilantro if wished.
