22. Cupboard Challenge: eggs, potatoes, chipotles, onions, quinoa, spinach, garlic

The challenge is to make a late breakfast with what I have on hand.

I put a red potato in the oven and started sauteing some onions. I added garlic to them when they were getting brown, then two chopped chipotle peppers, about a quarter pound of baby spinach, a few T of cooked red quinoa,and a beaten egg. Then I took a potato out of the oven, sliced it, and finished it on the grill pan.

The dominant taste was chiptotle. I didn't mind, but for guests I would have used only one half of a pepper to let some of the other flavors shine. This dish was essentially San Francisco Joe with chipotles and quinoa, without the meat.

Cupboard Meals

Johnson has the concept of "Cupboard Meals." Basically, you cook from what you already have on hand. Eggs, canned food, leftovers. I'll be trying out some of my own ideas as well as his suggestions.

American Table

This is one of the two cookbooks I own, the others having gone to ex after divorce. I got it yesterday. It is beautifully written (by poet Ronald Johnson) and fits my simple, at times simplistic, style of cooking superbly.

San Francisco Joe (2)

This morning I found a recipe for this in Ronald Johnson's The American Table.* It called for an optional grated zucchini, and 2 T of chopped parsley, and freshly ground nutmeg.

I'll stand by my chipotle and poblano pepper version. What I like about cooking is that the combinations are endless. I left onions out of a beef stew I made a few days ago. It was fine.

Omitting an ingredient, adding an ingredient, substituting an ingredient. Any modification makes the dish subtly different.

*The American poet RJ is also author of cookbooks.

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Breakfast for first day of classes was Ethiopian coffee made in a Moka pot, freshly ground and served in a cup made by my mom.


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