et’s see, what’s in the fridge
today:
- Frozen boneless/skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 an onion
- a box of red wine (same one as before)
- an opened jar of spaghetti sauce
- a head of cabbage
I also have an old jar of pickles, but that’ll have to wait
for another day.
There are times when I get home, and I just don’t feel like
cooking. Today is one of those days. At least the fridge is
still pretty well stocked – no need to resort to drastic
measures quite yet. And luckily, the cave-person brain hasn’t
fully emerged yet [see What’s in the Fridge
series intro]. I
still have some minutes before my blood-sugar dips into the Hulk
range. What has emerged, however, is a brain that doesn’t want
any complicated cooking tasks taxing its delicate cells.
Therefore, we’re doing the easy thing tonight.
It’s time for a braised dish.
What is braising, you ask? (Go ahead, ask.) In it’s
simplest form, the chef (that would be you) lightly browns a
piece of meat, then throws vegetables on top, adds a little
liquid, covers and cooks on low for awhile until it all gets
nice and soft and stewy and yummy and the house smells nice
(time it right and have your friend who you’ve had a crush on
drop by). Why brown the meat first, you ask? (Go ahead.) I’m
told it’s to seal the juices in, but I do it to give it
color and a little of that nice flavor (you know,
"brown" flavor -- the darker color the food, the
better it seems to taste, right?). Braising is easy. Just throw
stuff in the pan, cover, and forget about it. The only snag: it
takes awhile to do proper braising. Like 45 minutes or even
more.
Well, screw proper. Incredible Hulk brain starting to peek
through. Hulk not proper. Need food quicker. So we raise the
temp and cut down the time. Just use the meat right out of the
freezer (no defrosting needed here). If you don’t have
cabbage, ANY vegetable will do, including frozen vegetables.
That’s the easiest. Frozen meat. Frozen veggies. The only
fresh ingredients you then need are onion and garlic. You could
even skip those, but sautéed onion and garlic add LOTS to any
dish -- they form the base of the flavors. Just about all my
recipes start with onion and garlic.
Remember, this recipe’s very flexible. You could make a
great dish with just the chicken and cabbage, and whatever
spices you have in the cupboard (or even sans spices, although
it always feels good to sprinkle something into the pan,
regardless of actual effect). Don’t have spaghetti sauce? Use
any kind of tomato product: fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato
paste (reduce the amount), tomato soup, ketchup (reduce amount),
or none at all -- I just happen to have spaghetti sauce). Don’t
have wine? Try chicken broth. Don’t have chicken broth? Try
beer. Don’t have beer? Try water. Don’t have water? Then you’ve
got bigger problems than worrying about this dish.