Fish & pea freezer stash

This is totally the kind of thing I end up making when it's 8:30 and I suddenly realize the only thing I've consumed all day is coffee and a bowlful of grape tomatoes. It's a good thing we usually have whitefish and bags of peas hanging out in the freezer at any given time.

Fish: defrost filet in hot tap water. If you are me, pry your defrosted filet from the second one firmly clinging to its side. Dry with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper, and sear both sides over high heat in some olive oil or butter. Butter is better.

Peas: you can defrost these in hot water too, if you want, but I usually don't bother. Sauté chopped garlic in olive oil or butter for a minute or so; add peas, salt & pepper, & cook, stirring occasionally, until peas are hot through.

Throw everything on a plate and eat it immediately. Drink a glass of white wine if you can swing it.

A hot fish waits for no one.

Five minutes to breakfast!

Get out:
- rolled oats
- salt
- nuts and/or seeds (almonds & sesame seeds here)
- dried fruit (apricots)

Put a couple handfuls of oats and a pinch of salt in a small pot; cover with water. Put it on high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes.

Chop up a handful of nuts and throw them in a little frying pan. Toast over medium heat for two to three minutes, tossing frequently. Add seeds for the last minute of cooking.

Scrape your oatmeal into a bowl. Toss toasted nuts and seeds on top. Slice up some dried fruit (or don't, if you have dried berries) and add them.

Eat with copious tea. Stay full all morning.

Split pea soup is the greatest.

Hey, it's fall! Let's eat ALL THE SOUP.

Split peas are an especially great legume to have on hand for soup since they take comparatively little time to cook. Instead of giving them an overnight soak or a quick spin in the pressure cooker, you can just stick them into some hot tap water. In barely an hour, your peas are ready for soup application. Lentils serve the same swift purpose.

Usually I add some greens to bowls of this soup, or wilt them in during the last few minutes of cooking; this time, I went with a more basic method, simply adding peas and broth to a spicy mirepoix.

Notice that this is incidentally vegan. If you want meat instead, you can use some chopped bacon instead of the olive oil.

Split pea soup

dried split peas
olive oil
onion/garlic
hot pepper
carrot
celery
salt, pepper, bay leaf, sage, marjoram, thyme
veg broth
liquid smoke
fresh parsley
green onion

First, comb through your dried split peas to remove any spontaneous rocks. Soak the clean peas in hot tap water for about an hour. You can simmer them separately if you want to cut the cooking time down even more.

Warm some olive oil in a large soup pot. If you happen to want meat in your soup, you can dice a couple pieces of bacon and render the fat down instead.

Chop up an onion, a couple cloves of garlic, and a jalapeño or other hot pepper. Sauté them in the oil while you chop a carrot and a couple sticks of celery. Add a bay leaf, a couple shakes each of marjoram, sage, and thyme, and some salt and pepper. When the onion is translucent and everything smells fantastic, it's time to add your drained split peas and a bunch of vegetable broth. My broth was frozen, so I let it melt right in the pot, but liquid broth obviously works just as well, if not better.

Cover your pot, bring it to a boil, and reduce the heat to simmer. From here, the time required varies based on the age of your peas. My peas took only about ten minutes to break down completely, but your mileage may vary.

When your peas are cooked, take your pot off the heat; it's time to blend. Remove the bay leaf and attack the soup with an immersion blender. Now take a look at your soup's texture. If it's too thick, add some more broth or water and stir it through; if it's too thin, put it back on the burner to cook down a bit.

When your soup is at your desired texture, season carefully with liquid smoke. (You won't need this if you used bacon.) This stuff is super strong, so you won't need very much; I started out with four drops, then increased to 6 or 7 total for the entire 4-serving pot. Proceed with caution.

After correcting any other seasonings, your soup is done! Scatter parsley and green onion over your bowl, and eat it all with lots of toast or biscuits. We had the very end of a block of smoked gouda as well.

Rice, chard, garlic, cheese

Concoctions like these are one of our default "oh crap, there's no food in the house" dinners. Even if some strange mold has infiltrated the entire crisper, there are always bags of all kinds of different grains in the freezer.

You can make this with practically any grain or green you have in the house. Rice, barley, quinoa, millet; chard, kale, spinach, arugula, escarole: whatever. I might not use something like teff or amaranth, since they are so teeny, but you can always give them a try.

This is also a great way to use up any forlorn cups of leftover quinoa &etc. you may have lying around.

Rice, chard, garlic, cheese

olive oil
garlic
chard/other cookable greens
any additional vegetables
cooked brown rice/grain of your choice
salt, pepper, various herbs
fresh parsley
mozzarella/other cheese

If you are starting with raw rice, put it on to cook first. Follow whatever rice cooking method you like best. Personally, I throw my rice in the rice cooker with some water, hit a button, and walk away. I love you, rice cooker.

So. Smash several cloves garlic and mince them up. Warm a sauté pan on medium, add olive oil and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally. If you are the type to want hot peppers in everything, now is the time to add them.

While your garlic cooks, wash several leaves of chard and cut the leaves off the stems. (Note: do not try to eat kale stems, if that's what you happen to be using.) Set the leaves aside for a minute. Chop the stems into small slices and add them to the pan along with some salt and pepper. If you want to chop and add any other vegetables, go right ahead. This is also a good time to add whatever herbs you may desire. I think I put oregano and parsley in mine.

When your rice is done, add as much as you like to the pan. Stir everything together and let cook for a few minutes, so the rice gets a chance to soak up the tasty oils. If things start to stick to the pan, you can deglaze with a little dry vermouth or a splash of water.

Chop your chard leaves roughly. Add them to the pan and stir intermittently until wilted. Turn off the heat, correct seasonings, and finish with a little chopped parsley (or any other fresh herbs you like).

Done! Now you just have to to decide how you want to eat your rice and greens. I put mine in a bowl with a handful of cubed mozzarella, which melted in a most satisfactory way. You could also stick them in a tortilla with some refried beans, cover them with sriracha sauce or granted parmesan, or just eat them totally plain.

Leftovers are great scrambled with eggs and hot sauce and (again) either stuffed into tortillas or eaten out of hand. I mean, out of bowl. Out of a bowl. Yes.

Insalata caprese

Want to see what I ate for lunch yesterday?

Yes. It may be the first day of fall, but that really only means one thing: if you want tomatoes, you had better eat them now.

This particular tomato came courtesy of our next-door neighbor, who has now twice given us a big bag of her backyard tomato overflow. I HEART OUR NEW NEIGHBORHOOD. Even when I forget to go to the farmer's market, I get bounty!

Then I transform the bounty into plates like this.

Insalata caprese

good tomato
mozzarella
fresh basil
salt, pepper

This is the easiest possible salad. Cut, plate, and eat.

So. Core your tomato and cut it into reasonable bite-sized wedges, or into your choice of other shape.

Slice up a roughly equivalent amount of mozzarella. Obviously it's best to use fancy fresh mozzarella, but I think this salad works well even with big generic supermarket block mozz, which is good, because that's what I had. I shaved my mozzarella with a cheese plane, because that's how I roll.

Pick a good handful of fresh basil leaves off the stem. Stack them together, roll them into a little cigar shape, and slice finely. Congratulations; you have just made a chiffonade!

Arrange your tomato, mozzarella, and basil prettily on a plate. Pour any incidental cutting board tomato juice over the plate as well. Add a few pinches of salt and grinds of black pepper, and you are done.

Eat it all.

Man. Tomatoes.

Incidentally, want to see what my tomato plants look like today?

This picture is at my eye level. I am 5'11".

There are only three of them, and yet they are somehow 7 feet tall, 7 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. The branches stick out four feet into the lawn. I have run out of sufficiently tall stakes and been forced to lash the remaining pieces together for adequate support. I stuck in an extra tomato cage to corral some of the escaping vines. I HAVE BEEN PRUNING.

The plants are covered with tomatoes. 95% of the tomatoes are still green. It's a good thing we live in California.