Rubbishy Cookery

  Let’s make chicken tacos for a small dinner party! Olé! Ingredients: Directions: Cut up the chicken breasts into strips like so: That’s a lot of chicken, but it is  for a party. Slice up two onions, retaining some slices for taco garnish: Heat up some canola oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat and sauté the onions: Sauté the onions until browning: Then add the chicken slices to the pan: Sauté the chicken-onion combo until the chicken sears all over: That chicken doesn’t look seared because there’s too much chicken crowded in my pan and it’s steaming instead of searing. Shame. Add the spices to the pan: a generous amount of chili powder, chipotle powder and ground cumin: Stir and sauté, and maybe you need more chilli powder: Now lower the heat to medium and put a lid on to ensure fully cooked chicken: Meanwhile, warm your tortillas in a cloth napkin or tea towel in the microwave, 1-2 minutes or so: Set your party table with everything: the cooked chicken, the warm...

  Today we’re going to make basic black beans, which are an incredibly versatile base for many Tex and/or Mex style dishes. Making a big batch of beans means lots of easy meals in the days ahead with the leftovers and the addition of some two dimensional corn-based products. More on this in future recipes! I’m sure I didn’t actually invent this recipe per se , but I can’t remember how or when I learned this particular combination of ingredients and method of preparation. It is probably a composite/bastardization of multiple other real recipes, pared down to the minimal amount of time, energy, and ingredients necessary to make it still taste good. And isn’t that what rubbishy cookery is all about? Ingredients: Don’t panic about the Instant Pot! I am only using it because I have one. I used to make this exact recipe on the stovetop for decades before I got an Instant Pot. Yes, decades. I’m that old. Directions: Chop up your onion (or in my case, half onion because it was quite large)...