Rubbishy Cookery

  I’m lifting another one of my rubbishy recipes from the hit bestseller cabbage cookbook: Last seen here in Recipe #35, and is now internationally famous: But never mind all that hoopla! We won’t let fame go to our heads, will we? Nevair! So it’s the third night of Hanukkah 2025, the news is beyond dreadful, I’m sick with laryngitis, and I’m already done with latkes. I needed a comforting, healthy, easy, and rubbishy dinner tonight. Soba noodles in the pantry, I’m gonna make my famous dish from the cabbage cookbook: Ann so loved my rubbishy contribution to the book she gave me a generously praising paragraph intro and named the dish after me!  Let’s go! Ingredients: I know it’s called Cabbage Noodles in the book, but I don’t have any cabbage today. The main point of this recipe is to use whatever vegetables you have on hand. The main ingredients are the soba noodles, the soft cooked egg, the tamari, and sesame oil. I would go so far as to say that the chopped scallions and to...

  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 is a Japanese-ish light dinner that is simple, but will knock your socks off with the subtle complexity of its flavours and textures. I didn’t invent it by any means, but it’s a mish-mash modification of actual recipes and deconstruction of dishes I’ve had at Japanese restaurants. Ingredients: The broccoli isn’t really part of the recipe, I’m just making it as a side dish. Directions: First, prepare your mise en place: Finely chop the ginger and chop the scallion into fine rings as above. Try to handle your extra firm silken tofu gentler than I have so it emerges from its packaging in a solid block rather than two iceberg shaped pieces with extra bits. Chop the silken tofu into delicate bite sized cubes. I’m saving half of my block for another day, possibly for a miso soup (see Recipe #2): Meanwhile, as I heat up a pot of water in which to cook my soba noodles, why not take advantage of the resultant steam for my broccoli side: After a few minutes, I have perfectly steamed a...