Gingery Fried Rice

 

Gingery fried rice is a dish that not only tastes delicious, but also cooks quickly, so it's important that you chop and prepare everything before you start the actual process of cooking, because once you start putting the first ingredients in the wok you won't have time for any prep work anymore. Depending on how you cook the rice, this can be a vegan dish (I always use a little butter while cooking rice, so not vegan for us) and if you substitute the soy sauce for tamari sauce it's also gluten free. I found the recipe in the NYT, but changed a few things. For example, the recipe asks for frozen peas, but since the Geek is allergic to peas that wasn't an option for us. I will show you my version here.

You will need:

• 4 cups cooked, day-old jasmine rice
• 5 TB canola oil
• 3/4 pound (mixed) fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 3/4 pound baby bok choy, trimmed, then sliced crosswise
• 5 scallions, trimmed, greens and whites thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2-3 TB finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 TB soy sauce (or tamari)
• 2 TB sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1 egg
  
  

Take the cooked rice out of the refrigerator and set it aside at room temperature.

In a lare wok, heat 2 TB canola oil over medium-high. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and tender, 5 or 6 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

(As you can see, my wok is well used)

Add 1 TB canola oil to the wok and heat over medium-high. Add the bok choy, scallions, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and stir-fry, stirring frequently, until aromatic and barely crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms.

Add the remaining 2 TB canola oil to the wok and heat over medium-high. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and toothsome, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper, and stir until rise is evenly coated in soy sauce mixture, and no uncoated rice grains remain, 1 to 2 minutes. In this step, you can also add zest and juice of one lemon, if you like - I sometimes do.

Stir in the mushrooms and bok choy mix and warm up, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Crack the egg on top of it and stir until it is well mixed into the rice dish. 

Divide among bowls and serve hot. 

We like to drink a dry rosé with it. Bon appétit.

I'm linking to Food Wednesday.

Cats And Coffee

 

Do you see the cat on the moped? This little guy entertained us a few years ago while we were sitting in a little street café called "Green Corner" almost right next to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was the morning after the wedding of the Geek's cousin and we just had a few more hours before his mother, brother and nephew had to leave for the airport for their flights back home (we were lucky to have one more week in Turkey to look forward to). After the wedding that started late in the evening and lasted into the early morning hours, we were a bit tired and didn't feel much like walking around. So we had some iced coffee in this little street café that we had frequented several times during the week before.

However, this was the first time that we saw this cat. It inspected the moped, hopped on the seat and finally lay down to take a short nap.

This wasn't the only time that we were entertained or visited by a cat while taking a coffee break. It happened again when we had a very delicious iced coffee (they make great iced coffee in Turkey) in a little street café in Selçuk (which is not far from the famous site of Ephesus).

We were planning the next day when this little cat turned up and decided to hang out right next to us. I ended up resting halfway on the sidewalk and halfway on the street. It didn't mind since everybody in Turkey seemed to be very considerate of stray cats and dogs. The Turkish people feed them, give them places to sleep safely, care for them, even pay veterinary bills if the need arises. If a cat crosses a street, traffic comes to a stop and everybody waits patiently until the little stinker is on the other side of the street. I've never seen a country where stray animals are so much loved as in Turkey.

Back in Istanbul, we of course paid a last visit to the "Green Corner" for our last Turkish iced coffee. There was no way we would leave without a final taste of this delicacy.

Guess who was there? Our little moped loving four-legged friend.

Have you watched the movie "Kedī" (Turkish for 'cat')? It's a wonderful little movie about the cats in Istanbul and the people of Istanbul. I watched it after having been to Istanbul and I felt like being back in the magical city. I wrote about the cats of Istanbul here.

The coffee, of course, is for the T gang - all gathered for Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

Chasing the Light

 

What a wonderful time of spring! The sun rises earlier and is higher in the sky, lightening up different parts of the garden. I love to go out in the morning and follow the light how it moves from one area to another, playing with the darker parts and brightening up others. There is constant change until the garden is bathed into golden morning light.

The filigrane shapes of this decorative piece that I found at a yard sale is highlighted in a narrow strip of sunlight.

The flower bed with its Jupiter's beard (Centranthus) and the young pomegranate tree slowly emerges from the shadows. The flower stalks of Jupiter's beard - which is also called Red Valerian - look gorgeous when backlit before a dark background.

Kibeau is looking for a sunny spot as well where he can watch the little bugs and spiders bustling through the leaves.

Look at the leaves of the Japanese Maple!

The birds have turned up as well. If you look hard at the left picture, you can see a male Hooded Oriole in the leaves of the Pineapple guava whereas the Cedar Waxwings are easy to spot at the top of my neighbor's gingko tree.

The clematis is spectacular. It blooms like crazy in the spring and then again later in the summer, but not quite as vivid.

There are peony buds and the blue-green foliage of California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) caught in the light...

... as well as Coyote mint (Monardella villosa) and Calamintha nepeta, a bee magnet later in the summer that also has a lovely scent...

... and even some succulents like Sedum Autumn Joy and the little decorative bird next to the Echeveria.

I love this little angel sitting on a piece of driftwood right in front of the birdbath.

Some plants are fully immersed in the morning light...

... while others just capture the first little bits of light. Oh, how do I love this!

An English Breakfast

 

In my last post I showed you a Cotswold kitchen, and today I'm going to tell you what we had for breakfast there - a typical English breakfast that prepares you for the day to come.

There was a fried egg as well as mushrooms (yum!), the typical grilled tomatoes and those sausages that I am not too crazy about.

I'm not a big fan of bacon either, but this version I actually liked. 

Don't forget the baked beans! I think no English breakfast is complete without baked beans (at least that's the impression I got).

Of course triangle toast is an inherent part - with orange marmelade or apricot jam.

And no English breakfast without a pot of tea - and milk.

I'm linking up to Kathy's Food Wednesdays.

Cotswold Kitchen

 

The Cotswolds is one of my favorite areas in England that I have visited often. I was a teenager when I went there for the very first time and already back then I was captured by its gently rolling hills and the honey colored houses. During the late 80s and early 90s and then again late 90s I spent time in the Cotswolds every year and got to know it quite well. After we had moved to California we traveled extensively in the US to get to know this country better. But in 2014 we visited the Cotswolds again and I found it quite changed. The once quiet and charming little villages had become bustling tourist destinations - thank you (not), Rick Steves!

But the area was still lovely. We stayed in a lovely farm house B&B in the countryside at the end of a narrow country lane.

There were lovely plants at the front entrance (that no one used, everyone got in through the back door). My clematis are never as gorgeous as this one.

Of course the heart of the house was the kitchen. And the heart of the kitchen was this old Aga.

In many English novels that are set in the countryside you can read about the Aga. When I was much younger I loved to read the novels by Rosamunde Pilcher (wonderful soft un-challenging feel good novels) and the kitchens in her books always have an Aga and a scrubbed wooden table. It was just like this kitchen!

The lady of the house didn't use this Aga anymore since she cooked our breakfast in a more modern kitchen. But I thouroughly enjoyed sitting in this kitchen right out of Rosamunde Pilcher's books!

The view out of the kitchen through those old windows was lovely as well.

And what do you drink in an English country kitchen? Tea of course - with milk! That's my ticket to Elizabeth's T Tuesday.