Rubbishy Cookery

  Do you ever have friends over for dinner, prepare some nice appetizers and a main, only to be left with a fridge full of bits and bobs of leftovers?  Well today I’m going to show you how to turn your leftover BBQ kebabs and nacho chips and dips appetizer into nachos that are reminiscent of 1990s “Mexican” restaurant fajitas! Ingredients: Directions: First, we’re going to donate the mushrooms to another meal. Luckily I have someone nearby who wanted them for a pasta dish. Next, chop up the leftover cold kebab beef, onions, and red peppers into bite-sized pieces: The fact that the beef is too rare for my liking becomes irrelevant in the process of recooking that follows, and is, in fact, an advantage. Heat some neutral flavoured oil in a nonstick pan and add the chopped kebab pieces when hot, then stir fry until nicely reheated and browned up: Meanwhile, get your nacho chips ready and lay them out on a parchment paper-lined tray. I’m making a serving for one, so using the...

  This is the closest thing I make to a real salade niçoise, and although it’s much more effort than the other, faker versions (see recipes #15 and #20) (and still not authentic), it’s well worth it! Ingredients: Directions: I’m going to make my hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot because I have one and it makes perfect hard boiled eggs (as well as cool fun-house reflections on the mirrored interior), but you can certainly make them the old fashioned way on the stove top: Boil up some fresh baby new potatoes and green or yellow beans: The potatoes take longer than the beans, which are really just quick cooked to al dente or barely cooked, then plunged into cold water to stop them from overcooking, then drained well. The potatoes are cooked until a fork can easily pierce them, then drained well but kept warm. Chop all the raw vegetables and put into the salad bowl: Then add the canned tuna with oil, chopped hard boiled eggs, drained beans, drained (and still warm) diced potatoes, an...

  Disclaimer #1: this is not a Spanish tortilla, which I also adore, and is also a type of potato omelette. This potato omelette isn’t even close to the Spanish version, except for the eggs and potatoes. Disclaimer #2: I didn’t invent this dish. This particular recipe was introduced to me by my grade 8 bestie, Karen Crawford, who said that her father invented it by accident while trying to make a potato soufflé. This story doesn’t make any sense to me now, and I question my memory of these origins. Which means that I may also have altered the recipe over the past forty (40!) years. Which means I maybe can take some credit for its current incarnation.  However! This omelette made a huge impression on my little 13-year old self. It may be the first recipe I made an effort to learn to make by myself that came to me from outside of my family, and I spent a lot of time working on perfecting my techniques to make it taste as good as the Crawford family version. I remember making fai...

  Who doesn’t love poutine? Ingredients: Note the power ingredient: You certainly don’t have to use authentic Québécois cheese curds, but then it’s not poutine. It’s what one university pub menu from my Alma mater called “fries with cheese and gravy”. Directions: I won’t lie: I’m taking a major shortcut here today using frozen fries, but they’re pretty darn good. I’ll do up some homemade fries in a future post. Also I’m cheating with the homemade gravy by copying from memory (from years, possibly decades, ago—so it may actually be quite different) a published gravy recipe from one of the famed Moosewood cookbooks, or so I think? First, pop those frozen fries into the oven. I’m making a single serving on a hot summer day, so I’m just using the toaster oven: And bake according to the bag’s directions until golden brown and crispy. Start making the Moosewood-plagiarized gravy by adding some canola oil to a saucepan and, when warm, add sliced fresh mushrooms: You’ve got it on medium-hi...

  Of course I did not invent pesto. I started my independent culinary life buying pre-made pesto to use as a sauce, a dip, a topping. I graduated to using official pesto recipes, buying and measuring and mixing ingredients to make pesto. And I evolved to finally making large batches of improv pesto.  Improv pesto sometimes means pesto with surprises. Some surprises are better than others, as we shall see. Ingredients: Note: the pine nuts can be replaced with walnuts, and the fresh basil with other herbs. Cilantro or arugula make surprisingly good substitutes for some or all of the basil. Note #2: improv pesto means not measuring anything but adding amounts as the spirit moves you. This almost always works out fine. Note #3: I literally, as I am typing up this blog post, just noticed I forgot garlic. Garlic is a very important ingredient in pesto. This is a big omission. Directions: Wash and spin dry the basil (or alternate) and stuff it into the food processor (hopefully you h...

  This is a great tea to have when you’re battling a flu or cold bug, or if you just can’t get rid of a tagging post-RSV cough and have to go to a classical piano performance and don’t want to be that person coughing throughout the show. Hypothetically. Ingredients: Note the fancy turmeric “golden milk” powder blend. This is not necessary and plain ground turmeric will do. I just happened to be given this product by a friend who hated it and gave the rest to me knowing that I like weird stuff like this. And I do! Directions: Get a big travel mug and personalize it so that nobody will “borrow” it and you’ll never see it again: Heat up some water in your kettle to a less-than-boiling setting, if possible, or to boiling if it’s your kettle’s only option. Just don’t burn your mouth on top of everything else! Peel a chunk of ginger: Then cut it into thin slices directly into your mug: Add less than a teaspoon of turmeric powder—a little goes a long way: And a generous spoonful of honey,...