Some Intentions, plus a Chinese Omelet

With Pride From Oregon

Chinese Omelet, or something like that...

I don’t intend to cater to diets, fads, gourmet food preparation. While I like to talk about kitchen tools – sometimes unusual ones – it’s often a matter of reassigning unexpected tasks to simple tools, or describing some of my favorites, some of which fall into the categories of “ethnic” or “antique”.

This should never have
happened to asaparagus!

I will be talking about foods, food history, everyday cooking (with and without recipes), condiments and spices, food ephemera , some food stories and memories, possibly some food fiction and art, and some blatantly subjective preferences, reviews, and remarks. Not to mention what I hope will pass as humor.

A rather suggestive title
for a Jell-O booklet!

I like to read cookbooks, but rarely stick to a recipe (except for baking: baking is chemistry and I don’t mess with the recipes much –except to add or change an exchangeable ingredient or flavoring). When I do share recipes they are often based on common sense rather than strict measures or ingredients.

Take today’s lunch, for example. My impetus was to use up the last of some fresh bean sprouts. We had already had sprouts in stir fries, salads, and sandwiches (I bought this enormous bag of the suckers at the Asian market, since they only come in a big bag. One-pound? Lots of sprouts, whatever. Tip: blanche them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, immerse immediately into very cold water, and they’ll keep for several days in the fridge. Tip, part 2: I just pour the hot sprouts into a large sieve or colander and shake and toss it under cold running water until they are cold.)

So for lunch I decided to make something akin to eggs foo young, but I didn’t want to mess with making little pancakes. So I made my mixture by cracking two fresh eggs (from local pasture-raised chickens) into a bowl, added about a couple of shots of soy sauce (a little more than a tablespoonful, but to taste) a dash of toasted sesame oil (to taste) and a tablespoonful or so of flour, just enough to thicken the batter a bit. Beat that together, then added chopped sprouts, chopped green onions (three or four average size, with green tops), a dash of pepper. Hold off on the salt, the soy sauce is probably enough. Heat a 10” skillet on a stovetop burner, add some peanut oil (about 2T) when hot, let the oil heat, shake it around to coat the bottom of the pan evenly, and pour in the mixture. Let it brown nicely on one side then flip (OK, I flipped in two halves) and cook on the other side just until the eggs are set.

Spousal review, “Mmmmm, that’s good. Still nice and crunchy.” (He uses an epicurean scale based mostly on crunch.)

Of course you can add to this for a large cake, or make two. Use a smaller pan for a one-egg omelet.

An Excellent Book on Culinary Ephemera