bits and pieces

I’ve been more into eating rice than noodles lately, especially when it’s fried, so I thought I’d try this recipe for Ham-and-Egg Fried Rice from Everyday Food Magazine. The egg isn’t blended in as usual, but the picture looked good and I hadn’t had ham in awhile.

The prep was fairly simple, though I hadn’t grated ginger before, so it was a bit messier than I expected. I think I also used a bit more rice than called for, but I don’t think that was a problem.

As you can see, I made a bit of a mess with the egg. It didn’t actually explode, though it definitely looks that way!

So, on the positive side, the ham was tasty, and I liked trying out the fried egg on top. However, I usually like a lighter fried rice with the egg blended in, and this just wasn’t doing it for me. The rice ended up being kind of gummy, probably from the rice vinegar and soy sauce, neither of which I normally use. So it was kind of heavy and gross, and I ended up throwing away half of the bowl. Sad.

Here’s the recipe for reference:

Ham-and-Egg Fried Rice
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 thick slice ham (8 ounces), cut into 1/4-by-1-inch strips
• 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts separated and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 1/4 cups cooked white rice, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 large eggs

Directions

1. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add ham, scallion whites, garlic, and ginger; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, 2 to 4 minutes.
2. Add rice, scallion greens, vinegar, and soy sauce. Cook, stirring, until heated through, 2 to 4 minutes. Divide fried rice among four serving bowls.
3. Wipe out skillet with a paper towel. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium. Gently crack eggs into skillet; season with salt, and cook until whites are set, 2 to 4 minutes. Top each bowl of rice with a fried egg.

Today, I…

…lounged in bed until nearly 10am. (Late for me.)

…spent almost $90 on several articles of black clothing.

…rocked out to The Bird and The Bee while driving around town.

…went grocery shopping and ran into Fred in the store. Twice.

…bought bunches of orange, red, and pink ranunculus.

…ate lunch and read a book while sitting out on my balcony.

…drove up in the mountains, including on part of Highway 9.

…finally hung up the Japanese woodblock print I had framed in December.

…enjoyed iced tea and biscotti in the afternoon.

…did some other “handyman” jobs around the apartment, like changing the vacuum filter.

…cooked dinner from scratch, rather than making something the lazy way.

…mellowed out to “classic” Smashing Pumpkins in the evening. Mmm.

…walked around with a hamster perched on my shoulder.

…had a good day.

I pulled out the March issue of Sunset Magazine again, and tried a more breakfast-type recipe, but for dinner. It’s called Poached Eggs With Smoked Trout and Potato Hash, and though I wasn’t sure if I’d had trout before, I figured I could at least give it a try. Everything else looked tasty.

The prep work didn’t take too long, and I did some of it while the potatoes were cooking in the oven. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the eggs turned out great, since I hadn’t poached eggs before, but they were still edible, although there were wisps of egg white floating around for a bit.

The first bites were way too lemony, so either I used too much or didn’t mix it well enough. Everything else tasted just fine, but that lemon flavor really killed it for me. Ah well.

Here’s the recipe for reference:

Poached Eggs With Smoked Trout and Potato Hash

Time: 40 minutes.
Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-in. cubes
• 1/2 yellow onion (about 4 oz.), chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• About 1/4 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 1/2 ounces smoked trout fillet, skin pulled off
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 large eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°. On a rimmed baking pan, mix potatoes with onion, olive oil, salt, paprika, and a few grinds of pepper. Bake, stirring a couple of times, until potatoes are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Crumble the fillet into bite-size pieces as you add it to the pan. Add dill and lemon juice and mix well, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pan. Season hash with additional salt and pepper if you like and cover with foil to keep warm.
3. Bring a large, deep frying pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a steady simmer. Crack one egg into a glass measuring cup, hold spout close to water’s surface, and let egg slip gently into water. Repeat with rest of eggs. Cook 3 minutes, or until eggs are softly set.
4. Divide hash between 2 plates. Using a slotted spoon, transfer 2 poached eggs onto each plateful of hash and sprinkle with pepper to taste.

I found a recipe for some tasty dishes in the latest issue of Sunset Magazine, including one for “Warm Soba Noodle Bowl.” I meant to make it a few weeks ago, but I kept putting it off since I was too tired to bother. I finally tried it out tonight though, and it was actually pretty easy once I got everything together.

The bulk of it is the dashi (soup base) and soba noodles (I used organic ones, so they’re lighter), and then whatever you put on top of it. In this case, the topping is a hard-boiled egg half, shiitake mushrooms, nori (dried seaweed), green onions, and daikon radish. I left out the daikon since I’m really not a fan, and I felt like something was missing. More green onions would have been good, or maybe something crispier, like bits of tempura batter. But I liked it all and will try it again.

And here’s the recipe for safe-keeping:

Warm Soba Noodle Bowl
Serves 4
Time: 40 minutes.

A popular Japanese winter dish, warm soba with toppings is just the thing for lunch on an overcast day. The broth is made with dashi, a staple soup base whose delicate flavor comes from dried bonito tuna flakes and seaweed.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 6 cups liquid dashi (or use concentrate)*
• 4 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 16 ounces dried soba noodles
• 20 thin slices daikon, peeled
• 1 sheet nori seaweed, cut into 1/4- by 1-in. strips
• 2 green onions, finely sliced diagonally

Preparation

1. Put eggs in a small pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit 15 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water.
2. Bring dashi to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add mushrooms, mirin, and soy sauce.
3. Bring a 3-qt. saucepan of water to a boil. Add soba and cook, stirring to separate noodles, until softened, about 5 minutes. Drain but don’t rinse. Divide noodles among 4 serving bowls.
4. Pour 1 1/2 cups of dashi over noodles in each bowl. Arrange mushrooms and daikon over noodles, dividing evenly so each bowl has a neat row of both. Peel eggs and cut each in half lengthwise, placing 1 half in each bowl. Divide nori and green onions among bowls.

*Find liquid dashi in containers in Japanese groceries and some gourmet stores. It’s more widely available as a dry concentrate called dashi-no-moto; reconstitute according to package directions.