Hi! Thanks for looking - here are three quick recipes for your lunch box. First I should say I firmly believe that the heart and soul of anything sauteed and savory is garlic and shallot so I always prep these first and have them ready to go before cooking. Secondly, outside the world of pastry, I don't really follow recipes and don't measure things either so take these as ideas, not prescriptions. Have fun, eat well, be good to your colon:
Blistered brussels
No need to pre-boil. Chop off the base, bisect and heat a moderate amount of oil in a good sautee pan that is large enough to accommodate the brussels with the cut side down.
When the oil is shimmering but not smoking, throw in brussels and arrange so that the cut surface is down. You should stay on medium-high heat to achieve blistering.
When you get the blackening that you want, toss, turn the heat down so it's not crazy hot anymore, make a well in the middle, into which goes the butter which should sizzle but not evaporate immediately (1-3 tbsp depending on your taste) . The idea is to create a pool of butter into which you place your diced shallot and garlic. Cooking these together after the blistering step prevents burnt garlic. Once the shallot and garlic smell incredible, toss all together, season, add chili pepper and cover on low heat. At this point it's done, ready for the backburner and you can start the leafy vegetable. By the time you're done with that the brussels should be tender all the way through.
** Instead of the oil in the first step, use chunks of thick-cut bacon over low-medium heat for 15 minutes to liquify the fat, then proceed with step 1. The bacon will crisp up with the brussels.
Leafy vegetable. The idea here is to get everything going with an initial blazing sautee step, then a quick steaming phase and a final saucing, all in one pan.
On high heat: oil in pan, garlic, shallot, add vegetable (no need to pre-cook), toss, add a splash of water, cover until steam starts coming out everywhere, uncover, add sauce to taste. Takes about 3 - 5 minutes depending on how delicate your greens.
Tofu salad This one requires a bit of prep but it is a sweet, solid texture that satisfies alongside eating a pile of vegetables.
Essentially in a large mixing bowl, whisk like a heaping teaspoon of white miso paste with some honey and thin it out - I use the tofu water, why not? Add a splash of rice vinegar to taste.
A microplane zester is best for this. Otherwise find the finest grater you can. Zest fresh ginger and carrot, enough to mix into your dressing so that it's the consistency of like, orange juice with extra pulp. Taste along with adding ginger, you don't need much. I use like 3:1 carrot to ginger.
Add cubed tofu. Use the back of the spoon to push the tofu up the sides of the bowl to mix without busting up the corners. Refrigerate.
Assemble as your lunch box and appetite allows.
cheers,wu
Ingredients
for the hot and blistered brussels:brussels sproutscrushed red chili pepper flakesgarlic and shallotbutterolive oil
for the chinese celery with garlic hoisin sauce
any green leafy vegetablegarlichoisin sauce - I use the Soy Vay brand. I know it's cheating but I couldn't make a better one so there
for the ginger miso tofu:extra firm tofuwhite miso pastehoneyrice vinegarfreshly grated ginger (must use)freshly grated carrotjapanese furikake seaweed seasoning
