Rubbishy Cookery

  This is a very old recipe from my childhood and not an original but I am assuming that it is now an open access, free of copyright recipe, so this is like singing an old traditional folk song without permission. It is also a very low brow cake that literally everyone loves and if you make it for any occasion you’ll be lauded and celebrated. It’s not a classy pineapple upside down cake, which someone will surely comment on. But I made this cake for a dinner gathering last night where the main dish was fresh Atlantic lobster, and the guests had very sophisticated, urban palates, and this cake was the hit of the night. So here we go! Ingredients: It doesn’t get simpler than that, does it? Except it does if you use a store bought white cake or sponge cake instead of making the cake in a box as I did. The other ingredients are non negotiable. Directions: First, the morning of your cake, start draining the crushed canned pineapple in the fridge: You’re going to get some nice free pinea...

  This recipe could be subtitled: Or, how to use up refrigerator dregs and leftovers before going on a trip. Here we go! Ingredients: The photo above shows the ingredients I intended to use (chopped quarter green cabbage, big hunk of salted butter, one egg that turned into two eggs, and leftover Jasmine rice) when I started this meal, and it was simply going to be buttery stir fried cabbage with reheated (or waffled, see Recipe #11) rice and a fried egg. But then I got thinking about turning everything into a one pan meal and decided to go a different route, so out came these guys: That’s tamari sauce and toasted sesame oil in the photo above. Here we go! Directions: Melt big hunk of butter in the hot pan, add chopped cabbage and stir fry: Get the cabbage nicely cooked and wilted and a bit browned: Then add the cold leftover rice and incorporate: Get the rice nice and warm and browned a little, and stir in some tamari sauce and toasted sesame oil: Stir it all together then crack in...

This week has been soup week chez nous, thanks to some minor but pesky dental misadventures with Mr. Rubbishy, and we all wish him a speedy recovery! In the meantime, the challenge has been to create new and healthful soups daily, and stretch my creative rubbishy cookery. I have embraced the challenge! Unfortunately, I’ve been so busy focusing on the matters at hand that I didn’t even think about this blog, until after I’d already cooked and we’d eaten this dish, which was unexpectedly easy and fabulous. A perfect recipe for the blog—but no photos! What to do? Get out the old art supplies and, in the spirit of the original Moosewood cookbook series, do some rubbishy drawings! Ingredients: In case my drawing and handwriting isn’t exactly the hyperrealism style of artistry you may have expected from this blog, the ingredients are: - 1-2 Tablespoons butter  - 1 onion chopped  - 2 carrots diced - 2 potatoes peeled and diced - 2 fresh bay leaves - 1-2 teaspoons dried thyme  - ...

  It’s all Greek to me—let’s make tzatziki! Ingredients: Note the ingredient labelled “Skyr”. This is a game changer for making homemade tzatziki. I used to use Balkan style plain yogurt, but had to first turn it into yogurt “cheese” by straining it for at least an hour, but the longer the better. My method, in case you’re interested, was to spoon a quantity of yogurt into a coffee filter lined plastic funnel positioned in a cup to collect the liquid that strains (“whey”) and let it rest in the fridge. If you use Skyr, a thick low fat, high protein Icelandic yogurt, you don’t need to do any of this rigamarole because it’s naturally so thick and unctuous. Time saver! Directions: Using a garlic press, crush a clove of garlic into a bowl and sprinkle with kosher salt to allow the garlic to mellow, soften, and, pardon the expression, sweat: Smash the salted crushed garlic after a few moments of rest into a paste: Add the Skyr (or strained yogurt cheese): Add a lot of finely chopped fre...

Hello again! Where did I go? I got a bit lazy and didn’t feel like blogging for a while, but then I discovered this recipe—did I invent it? Doubtful, but maybe?—and had to document it. Let’s face it. This blog is my personal recipe electronic notebook… Anyway, you need to try this, it’s so good! Ingredients: Directions: Melt a good chunk of salted butter in a nonstick pan on medium high heat until sizzling. Beat two eggs in a bowl until frothy. Get your mise en place ready with the other stuff. That means chop the tomatoes annd basil, and crumble the feta cheese. And giddy-up! Once the butter is sizzling, but before it browns, toss in the chopped cherry tomatoes and sauté: While the tomatoes heat up and cook in the hot buttery pan, chiffonade (I believe that’s the word for delicately chopping rolled up leaves to avoid bruising) the fresh basil leaves: Don’t abandon your tomatoes! Keep sautéing! And get your beaten eggs ready: I’m not adding any salt to the eggs, just pepper. Things are...