Pantry Improv: Huevos Rancheros

My huevos rancheros recipe is not really an improvisation, rather my interpretation of a classic, soul-soothing breakfast dish. My guess is that someone originally improvised this from food on hand in the pantry.

From the pantry:
vegetable oil
corn torilla
canned refried beans
salsa (or you can make fresh if you like)

From the fridge:
eggs
queso fresco or some other soft white cheese

Completely cover the bottom of a large skillet with the vegetable oil. Heat the oil until it starts to shimmer. Lay a corn tortilla in the oil for about two minutes or until it starts to get crispy. Carefully flip the tortilla and crisp the other side. Remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel. Fry one tortilla for every serving.

Spread a couple of tablespoons of refried beans on the tortilla.

In another skillet, fry an egg in a bit of oil, either sunnyside up or over easy. Scrambling doesn't work so well because you want a runny yolk in the finished dish. Place the fried egg on top of the beans and tortilla.

Spoon a bit of salsa and sprinkle a little cheese on top of all.

This breakfast dish is wonderful for lunch and dinner as well.

Click HERE to read about my personal pantry improv project.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

Watching Bread Rise: A Metaphor for Growth

This week I made bread from scratch. I'm a bit of a foody, if you haven't already figured that out, so the process of watching the bio-chemical replication of yeast is something that fascinates me. Yes, I know, I need to get a life, and that is indeed what I hope to do this year.

Bread-making is an appropriate picture of life growth. Yeast is a living creature -- Saccharomyces cerevisiae -- a one-celled critter that procreates like crazy if you give it enough sugar and warm water. When you combine these happy little yeastie-beasties with flour, salt, a lot of time and a little heat, you get bread.

I have an idea for a long-term life project. I have been tossing the idea around in my mind for several months, and now I want to nurture it with the hope it will rise like bread dough. The idea is the flour, the yeast is the planning, and the sugar and warm water is the research. Hopefully, the planning and research will make that idea rise up into reality. I don't expect achieving my goal will be easy. I expect a little heat along the way, but you need some heat to bake good bread.

I'm sorry to be so vague on the specifics of the project. I'm still in the planning stages, and, if you have ever made bread, you know that if conditions are not right, the bread dough won't rise. So I'm not going to say any more about it now in case things fall flat.

But to leave you with a little more than my ramblings, here is the recipe I used to make the gorgeous loaf of bread in the picture above:

Thoroughly mix together in a large crockery bowl:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
1 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, combine:

1 package of dry active yeast
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of warm water

About 10 minutes later, when the yeast is frothing on top of the water, add the liquid to the dry ingredients and thoroughly mix. Put a little flour on a bread board and dump out the dough on it. Vigorously knead the bread for about 5 minutes. (Great therapy). Return the dough to the crockery bowl and cover with a clean kitchen cloth. Put it someplace warm and leave it for about 3 hours.

After the dough has risen (it should double or even triple in size) add some more flour to the board, dump out the dough, and knead for another 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a large cast iron skillet. Cover and let it rise for another hour. About 15 minutes before you plan to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 375 F. (about 220C). Uncover the skillet, put it in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes (or until the top is golden brown).

Prepare to swoon from the aroma.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

The Pantry Improv Project

This week I had to say goodbye to a good friend who is moving far away. As she packed up her household, she gave me the majority of the contents of her dry food pantry. This cache of food items, coupled with my own pantry, means that I do not need to do much grocery shopping for several months at least. Not only is this going to save me a lot of money, but it has also presented an opportunity for some highly creative kitchen fun.

I am going to try to use up all the items currently on the shelves and limit grocery shopping to only those essential pantry items used up and fresh food (produce, meat, dairy, etc.) In doing so, I want to see how many improvised dishes I can create. I will not go out and buy something new until I have used up the majority of items in the pantry. For example, I have nine cans of beans of several varieties. I will buy no more beans until these are used up. Similarly, if a recipe calls for an item not in the pantry, let's say water chestnuts, I will either adjust the recipe or make something else; I will not go out and buy a can of water chestnuts.

The successful pantry improvisations I'll share here.

For example, last night I pulled from the dry pantry whole wheat penne pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, white wine, Italian herb seasoning, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper, and olive oil.

From the refrigerator, I selected kale, onions, poached chicken breast and parmesan cheese.

While cooking the penne pasta, in another pan, I quickly stir-fried in the olive oil the chopped kale, onion, and dried tomatoes until tender. Then I added a splash of chicken broth and white wine, the tomato paste, pinches of black pepper, herbs, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes and the diced chicken. When all of this was heated through, I added the cooked penne and topped it with parmesan cheese. I did not measure amounts. I eyeballed everything and resulted in about two fair-sized servings.

We'll see how far I get with this project. Hopefully, I'll end up saving money as well as developing a collection of recipes that I can use again.

In the meantime, can anyone tell me what I can do with a jar of powdered buttermilk and a can of sardines?