Fresh Tart

OK yes, I realize that I'm posting yet another fried egg dish, but this one is just too good to not share. I had actually forgotten about it, which is rather amazing given how many times I've made the dish since Mark Bittman first wrote about it in the New York Times two years ago.

This is a Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe, simple and elegant and exactly how I like to cook and eat. The fried rice itself has but three ingredients: oil, leeks, and rice. You wouldn't expect just rice and leeks to be so addictive, but they are, particularly when topped with a fried egg, particularly when topped with crispy ginger and garlic. A drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil to finish makes the whole completely sublime.

If you make an effort to keep leeks around, count this as a perfect quick dinner when you invite someone over and forget to swing by the store to pick up ingredients. I don't often find myself with leftover rice, so I make a fresh batch and cool it on a baking sheet before continuing; works perfectly.

I hated eggs when I was a kid - absolutely, truly loathed them.

Boy have things changed.  The changeover was so gradual, it was invisible to me.  A little bite of quiche (wow!), a taste of deviled eggs (yum!), tiny bits of yolk on an over-medium egg (ooh!), and I was slowly wooed.  Learning to cook eggs myself took the scare factor out of the yolks (good lesson if you, like I, have a child who hates eggs).  Eventually, over many years, I've come to adore eggs, to crave them in fact, in iterations I could never have imagined eating, like my version of huevos rancheros, basically an over-easy egg atop a crispy corn tortilla with enchilada sauce.  Beyond good.

Or this Jean-George Vongerichten recipe, which caught my eye a couple of weeks back.  Mark Bittman wrote about it in the NYTimes, and did a nifty little accompanying video, and when I saw both I knew I would love this deceptively simple fried rice.  Topped with an egg, and garnished with crispy bits of ginger and garlic, as well as a drizzle each of soy sauce and sesame oil, it has it all - comfort, salty-crunch, and umami all over the place (soy sauce, sesame oil, crispy-at-the-edges egg).  It makes beautiful use of leftover rice, but is so addictively good, it's well worth making a fresh pot (let the rice cool uncovered and dry out a bit).

Glance at the recipe and you'll realize it's easy to adjust for just one or two servings (vs. four).  You could probably even use leftover already-fried rice (although the simple leek-rice combination is lovely, make sure to try it) - the key is the garnish of crispy ginger and garlic (above), as well as the drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil.  I plan to deliciously riff on this theme for years to come.  Recipe here.

Unlike Mark Bittman*, I think canned beans are fantastic.  Especially at this time of year, when produce is a bit blah, and a pan of rib-stickin' beans is exactly what I'm hungry for.  And talk about a fast, nutritious meal - abracadabra, lunch is ready in 10 minutes, and yay!  It's not yet another sandwich.  Take this plate of beans, which was (!) my lunch today.  I started off with a drizzle of olive oil in a saute pan, added a minced clove of garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes, a few tablespoons each of pine nuts and chopped red onion, and a dash of dried sage (I didn't have any fresh, shucks).  When it was all sizzly, I stirred in a can of organic navy beans, drained and rinsed, as well as a generous sprinkled of coarse salt (to taste), then sauteed the beans for a couple of minutes.  Just for good measure, I stirred in a handful of fresh spinach leaves and sauteed for a couple minutes more, until the beans were hot and crisping a bit in spots and the spinach was wilted.  To finish, a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper.  If I'd checked the fridge a bit more closely, I would have noticed a pork chop leftover from last night - it would have been tasty diced and tossed in with the garlic et al.  Ah well, meaty or meatless, still a nice lunch.  (Bonus - plenty leftover for another meal.)

Tonight, partly because it is snowing and abominably cold outside, and partly because it's one of Nathan's favorites, I'm making Greek avgolemono (egg lemon) soup for dinner.  Easy?  Puh-lease, the easiest.  I stir in pieces of rotisserie chicken breast, but you don't need to.  Alongside a platter of roasted broccoli, and toasted pita topped with olive spread, should make a good post-basketball game dinner (as in light enough to eat after 7:30 p.m., easy to assemble beforehand).

* He also disses canned chicken broth and tomato paste, both of which I frankly find indispensible.  The article is otherwise neat, and certainly worth a read, and serves as a good reminder that cooking at home need be neither time-consuming nor expensive.