It's 4:45, you haven't been to the store having played outside with the kids all afternoon, and there's nothing coherent in the cabinets and thus far nothing on your stove. There's nothing frozen and you had take-out last night. What do you do?
An
article in the NYTimes today explored several multicultural answers to the usual "what's for dinner-in-a-hurry" question: Korean Pa Jun (like scallion pancakes), Ecuadoran Sopa de Tortilla de Huevos (Egg Tortilla Soup), and Hungarian Lentil Stew.
Mercy, makes my go-to dinner sound very boring: scrambled eggs. Not cheese eggs, not a Western omelet, not even "toad in a hole." Though, if I have any ground turkey in the house, I will make a version of Ar-Ma's omelet, which is basically scrambled eggs with meat, soy sauce, and (though not for the kids) dried radish. What do I eat? Two fried eggs and a piece of wheat toast.
If I have a little more time, I can make my favorite, an adapted version of Mario Batali's Pasta e Lenticchie, which takes about 30 minutes tops and can be served with a variety of seasonings (Italian, sweet curry powder, or chili con carne seasonings) and starches (pasta of any shape, couscous, or rice). For the kids, I can throw together a chicken rice meatloaf or chicken cutlets (provided I have any protein in my freezer) in 30 minutes, with frozen veggies on the side.
What does Mama make? She's an expert at throwing together whatever is in the fridge to make a stir fry over any type of noodle or fried rice. She could make cardboard edible with some baby corn and Maggi! But her favorite is Ketchup Macaroni, which her dad would make when her mom worked late. It's actually an Americanized Chinese noodle stir fry, even if it sounds more Italian.
I'm not sure what my mom served when under pressure. I don't really remember her being harried around dinnertime. Most of the food she made for dinner would have had to have been put together a couple of hours before (baked chicken, rump roast, stew), when we were at school. But I barely remember faster food, except maybe spaghetti every now and then. And that meatloaf (but she makes hers in a loaf, which takes longer than my muffin tin loaves). Swanson's tv dinners were for babysitter night and McDs was only when we were already out; I almost can't remember having pizza at home as a child.
Do you maintain any specific cultural heritage in your homecooking? I think, if you looked at my weekly menu, which rotates between new dish for us/leftovers for them and leftovers for us/new dish for them, you would guess that I'm a middle-class white woman of mixed Euro stock without too much sense of culinary adventure and a detectable Southern dedication to rouxs, gravies, greens, and cornbread. Well, you'd also know I'm a vegetarian but my kids are omnivores. Having become a vegetarian, I have been trying lots of new, often international recipes (though tonight it's a Euro peasant-style cabbage and bean stew in my crockpot, but it was Morocca chickpea stew the other day) and don't really make most of the foods my mom made us, even though they were all good. And the kids are in the picky stage and never eat much of anything so it makes little sense to make a whole roast for them (and that's not a quickie have-the-ingredients-ready meal anyway). They do inhale baked chicken with rice and gravy, well, the rice and gravy at least (and I do have a chicken in the freezer, but that would take some planning to defrost and then bake). Mama does go through stages where cooking Chinese and Thai food are more important to her and the kids do really like whatever she makes, as long as we say the recipe is Ar-Ma's. I think it's the soy sauce. And baby corn.
What do you make when you're in a hurry? Is it something from your childhood? Something you've just discovered? Will you try the recipes in the article? I will try them, but not on my harried nights. For those, I make meals I can throw together with my eyes closed. And that's just not going to be an Ecuadoran or Hungarian stew. Yet. Though, I used to think Pasta e Lenticchie was a challenge. It's all about practice I guess. And familiarity. Which is what makes homecooking homey.
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Pasta e Lenticchie
I have really started to pare this down--no fresh parsley, cook the pasta separately so it reheats better, any kind of seasonings (instead of the hot pepper flakes), any kind of canned tomatoes (diced, crushed, stewed), any kind of starch actually. And I love all the varieties.
5 cups water
3/4 cups lentils
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped canned plum tomatoes, with some juice
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/2 pound vermicelli, or small tubular pasta, or pasta mista
2 rounded tablespoons finely cut or snipped parsley
Optional: extra-virgin olive oil and hot red pepper flakes or hot pepper oil, for garnish
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil, add the lentils, and cook, covered over medium-high heat, until nearly but not entirely tender, about 20 minutes. Add the garlic, the olive oil, the tomatoes, the salt and the pepper. Reduce the heat, cover and continue to simmer briskly for another 10 minutes, stirring a few times, or until the lentils are fully tender.
If using capellini, break it into 2 to 4-inch pieces and add them to the lentils. Cook, covered, at a steady simmer, stirring several times and scraping the bottom of the pot when you do. Cook until the pasta is just done, stirring more frequently as it gets closer to the point of being cooked. If using a small tubular pasta or pasta mista, cook the pasta at least halfway in plenty of salted boiling water. Drain the pasta, add it to the lentils and simmer to finish cooking the pasta.
When pasta is cooked to taste, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the parsley cover the pot, and let stand about 5 minutes before serving. Serve hot, passing hot pepper oil or the best-quality extra virgin olive oil for drizzling on top.
“Molto Mario”
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Mama's Ketchup Macaroni
I can’t believe she adds ketchup and I freaked out the first time, but I’ve grown to like it.
macaroni
vegetables: bamboo shoots, waterchestnuts, snow peas, baby corn, straw mushrooms
ketchup
soy sauce
worchestershire sauce
chicken and fried egg, optional
Saute veggies, while boiling pasta separately. Add pasta to veggies and fry until slightly dry. Add ketchup, soy and worchestershire sauce. Mama likes it slightly burned.
