A quick little spaghetti recipe that I got off of a packet of Barilla pasta:
ca. 400 g cherry tomatoes
one fresh leek (green onions in a pinch)
olive oil
basil leaves
half a glass of water
ca. 300 g spaghetti
Quarter the tomatoes (I tend to buy miniature plums from the greengrocer under my flat), clean and slice the leek into rings. Take about half of the basil leaves, and put them in a mixer with about 4 teaspoons of olive oil to make a green goo.
Start cooking the spaghetti al dente. NOTE: I often forget to time this right.
Heat a pan with some more olive oil, and fry the leek rings in it. Once they are soft and have some brown on them, douse with the glass of water and add the tomatoes. And some salt and pepper. Let it all simmer for about ten minutes.
Add the spaghetti, mix well, let it heat up a little, then add the basil goo and mix, but only for a couple of minutes: basil doesn’t like too much heat! Put in the serving bowl or tray, and garnish with the remaining basil leaves.
I am trying to find recipes which would work in many countries, which can be prepared for one or two and which do not cost too much.
Beans, lentils, etc… take a long time to cook and the hidden electricity cost are therefore high. For a single person, it is best to use tinned (canned) ones, but I have no idea what choice of tinned beans you would find.
Your best bet is to find a supermarket catering for Mexicans (in the USA) or Turks/Indian (in Europe), as they have a far better choice. Then you look for recipes in google.
If you find chick peas, a great recipe is humus. Easy to make, keeps easily a week and can be combined with other foods.
Fry a chopped onion, some sliced garlic in oil. Optionally, add a bell pepper or 2.
Add a tin (can) or tomatoes and half a tin of maize (sweet corn) with the liquid. Add a cube of vegetable broth. Add salt and tabasco to taste. Let cook for 15’.
Blend.
Add the rest of the tin of maize. Add cream or cheese if you want. Some fresh herbs are nice too: chives, parsley, coriander (cilantro). Only use one sort, of course.
The cheapest tin of tomato is usually just as good as the others and can be found either on the very bottom or very top rack in the store.
The cheapest tin of maize may be just as good, or not. Test it.
2 or more boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sake or dry white wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 scallions chopped into as small bits as you can
Cut up the chicken thighs into bite size pieces and cook them in a pan (no oil is needed, the fat from the chicken will do the job for you)
Once the chicken is mostly done, add the sugar, sake and soy sauce to the pan and mix thoroughly until the sugar is dissolved
Turn up the heat to high
As the sauce thickens, roll the chicken bits in it for a nice coating. Once the chicken is well coated turn off heat
Plate and add the scallions on the top as a garnish
How about koshari/kusherie? (Egyptian dish with layers of lentils, rice, pasta & tangy tomato sauce). If you try this I recommend not using a Crock Pot (I couldn’t get the rice to turn out right). I think I also omitted the pasta.
This requires an Instant Pot (or pressure cooker), but it’s a simple easy dinner that’s pretty tasty.
Dump into the pot:
• a chopped up onion
• two cans of diced tomatoes or Ro-Tel tomatoes & chiles
• a couple cans of beans
• any sort of veggies (chopped up bell peppers, fresh spinach, kale)
• some chicken breasts
• seasoning (a taco seasoning packet, chili powder, italian seasoning, whatever flavors you want really)
Cook that for about 25 mins on high pressure and eat on rice or cauliflower rice.
Not directly food, but something else you can do if you have a balcony or window facing south: grow your own herbs. Lamiaceae like Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, etc… usually need not too much water and grow very easily in pots. They taste nice fresh.
As a bonus, their flowers attract several pollinators, even in a large city, which is nice to watch.
It sounds like a quickly prepared, uncomplicated, yet tasty and healthy recipe is the goal. Believe me… I get that!
Give me a couple of days or so and I’ll work something new up. When I’m in the “something new” mode, I tend to mix different cuisines together, so I expect that again this time. A one pan/pot preparation for one (ex: Indian) and a one pan/pot preparation for the other (ex: Spanish); On the dinner plate, one gets placed/poured over the other. That’s what I’ll shoot for!!!
Whatever works! The concern is time, and not having it. Then there’s the issue of cleanup. I will never, ever attempt home-made bouillabaisse again. The one time came out passing acceptable (not just a few seafood ingredients unavailable in the US)… but the time required to clean everything up afterwards was almost equal to the time required to prepare and cook it. The kitchen looked as if a bomb had gone off in it.
I’m curious why you want a substitute for saki. (It sounds like it’s not the alcohol that’s an issue.) I haven’t cooked with wine, and I’ve never bought saki. Why not use saki? Is it hard to get, where you are? Is it expensive? Just curious.
