Breakfast

[magid]

I ate the rest of the soup for dinner last night, so I needed to cook something to bring to work today. I'd finally gotten onions last night, so I started sauteeing a couple of onions, and a small sweet potato from Boston Organics. That gave me time to shovel the front sidewalk and put down icemelt (at least it's sunny today, if not warm; hopefully that will help getting the path clear).

Actually, not quite enough time; when I got back upstairs, things were a little burnt. I scraped all the pieces off the bottom of the skillet, and decided there wasn't time to start over. And hey, it was mostly unburnt. I cut up a couple of stalks of broccoli, cutting the stalks into coins after I'd peeled them (am I the only person to use a vegetable peeler for this?), and the heads into florets. Into the pan, stalk first. Time to check email and get dressed.

Next, I added the sesame-marinated tofu cubes (Tofu 2 Go brand). The texture's good, rather firm, but the seasoning is off. Why are so many ostensibly differently-flavored things so damned sweet? Even the theoretically-spicy flavors are sweet. I needed to doctor it up, adding sesame oil, soy sauce, and Szechuan spicy sauce (San-J brand), thinking of what the Tigerberries blogger described as the difference between Szechuan and Cantonese styles of cooking. Not that this was either, being more of a sautee with vaguely Asian flavors, but I can dream, right? Off to check LJ while the flavors melded. I was getting ready to pack it up when I realized I had a can of sliced water chestnuts that had lost their wrapper; better to use them before I forgot what was in the can. I stirred them in, then packaged it to bring to work.

Despite a frustratingly slow commute (I note that it is inifinitely more frustrating to have your train wait for a minute before opening its doors at your destination than it is waiting through a two minute delay on the train at the beginning of the ride), this whatever-it-is was still warm when I got into the office. And I'm pleased that there just the right amount of undercurrent spiciness, while the extra oil seems to balance out the over-caramelization of the burnt bits. Yum.

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

(am I the only person to use a vegetable peeler for this?)

Nope. Though sometimes the skin is too thick and I just use a knife.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I had been using a knife, partly because it's so satisfying to get the whole outer layer off at once, but I started worrying about when I'd manage to cut myself. Hence peelerization of broccoli. Thick skin = more passes with the peeler.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

(am I the only person to use a vegetable peeler for this?)

I do cut the stalks into coins, but I don't peel them. But if I did I'd probably use a knife. The only things I use a vegetable peeler for are carrots and parsnips. I think.