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...

  Back in my vegetarian student days, long before I had a good handle on rubbishy cooking from scratch, I relied on a lot of prepackaged meals and mixes. One such favourite was a boxed mix to add to tofu as a seasoning and binder to make “homemade” tofu burgers. It wasn’t just easy to use, but it was extremely tasty. I believe the brand was “Casbah” but who knows, because it’s long gone… Even though I’m no longer a vegetarian, I still love many of the vegetarian standbys from that phase of my life. I really loved those tofu burgers and have been determined to recreate the flavours I remember from the boxed mix. Many failed attempts, experiments, and 25 years later, I think I’ve done it! Behold! Ingredients: Missing from the above photo: neutral cooking oil, I use canola. Directions: Drain, then pat and squeeze dry your block of firm or extra firm tofu, using a clean tea towel. Then put the dried tofu into a shallow bowl and smash it up real good with a potato mashing device: Add a ...

  This is my version of a beloved dish from another favourite long-gone restaurant from my youth, Young Lok in Toronto. Young Lok was a classic semi-authentic Szechuan Chinese restaurant, located in the Village by the Grange plaza near downtown Chinatown, and a family favourite all through the 1980s and 90s.  When Young Lok closed its doors, I thought I’d never have anything like their braised tofu (or as their menu called it, “bean curd”) in black bean sauce again, and I haven’t. But I think this version comes pretty close—thanks  to a special ingredient, without which this recipe would be a mere shadow of its aspirations. I’m going to split this recipe into two parts: the pre-cooking of the tofu, and the final braised dish. Part I: pre-cooking the tofu, or “bean curd”. Ingredients: Directions: First, pat dry and squeeze some moisture out of your firm tofu with a clean tea towel. Then slice the tofu into serving size cubes: Next, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper ...