One Recipe Recipe Book: or, The Artist's Friend 9780773581661

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CHRISTOPHER LEA DUNNING

THE ONE RECIPE RECIPE BOOK OR, THE ARTIST'S FRIEND

CARLETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © Carleton University Press, 1995 Printed and bound in Canada Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Dunning, Christopher Lea The one recipe recipe book, or, the artist's friend ISBN 0-88629-275-1 1. Vegetarian cookery. I. Title. II. Title: The artist's friend. TX714.D85 1995

641.5'636

C95-900808-X

Carleton University Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing programme by the Canada Council and the financial assistance of the Ontario Arts Council. The Press would also like to thank the Department of Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada; and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation, for their assistance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Peter Gahlinger and Robert Armstrong, who suggested repeatedly that I write down my method for living on $15.00 a week and staying healthy; my cousin Mardi Armstrong, who typed out the manuscript; Marjorie Simmins, who edited the first three drafts, and her father, a long time friend and booster, Richard Simmins. Of course I couldn't have done it without my master, Chan Ky-Yut, who suggested to me an alternate way of looking at the world. This book is dedicated to my family. CLD

THE ONE RECIPE RECIPE BOOK

So who are you? A poet, musician, painter, sculptor, dancer, actor, a singer, or one of the many others in the cultural sweatshop? Poor and forgotten, lost in the dizzying heights of artistic inspiration or the depths of aesthetic drudgery, and yet you still want to eat? You are continually cash poor, but you need a clear head and healthy body to produce art. Well, you can do it on $15.00 a week and have money for colours, voice lessons or a copy of that script you are trying to learn. It is the artist who lives like a student for 25 years, but you can't afford to eat like a student for that length of time or you will end up old or dead before your time and unable to reap the rewards of a life dedicated to the arts. 4

My "one recipe recipe" will get you through. I have used it at least three thousand times in my life as an artist. There are a couple of requirements: you must be willing to shop and to cook. The shopping will take you an hour a week and the cooking an hour and a quarter a day. Both activities will help encourage a disciplined approach to your art, because in the midst of creative chaos they add a little structure and some enjoyable down time. A couple of other things before we go further: this recipe includes no meat and your shopping eliminates almost all packaged products. The cooking requires a few specialized tools which are easily available and cheap. The diet is light, it gives you lots of 6

energy and it's not hurt by side courses in meditation and Tai Chi given by a reputable master. Balance your stomach, ease your mind and stay healthy. The staples are rice, tofu, eggs, noodles, olive oil, cornstarch, sugar and salt. These are accompanied by a variety of vegetables and a sauce. For drinking there is Tik Kun Yin tea. Obviously this grocery list does not include beer, liquor, cigarettes or coffee. They come out of your entertainment budget. Now read on, cook, eat, enjoy, stay healthy and save money as you embark on those artistic pursuits.

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Tools: 1. A fourteen-inch wok—a steel one with wooden handles and a slightly flat bottom, or a round one with a wok ring—costs about $14.00. 2. A long-handled steel spatula-like spoon, $1.50. 3. Cooking chop sticks. These are about fourteen inches long. 4. A "chow do/' which is a big meat cleaver. 5. A wok cleaner, which looks like a bamboo whisk that is round and quite coarse. *

6. An aluminum stacking steamer about twelve inches in diameter, costing about $20.00. 7. An ahchun, a big clay cooker that sits on the stove, about $15.00, although any big cooking pot will do. These work better used on gas stoves than on electric ones, where they tend to crack. These things can all be purchased from a Chinatown shop.

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Breakfast: You have already prepared a pot of rice soup, which you store in the fridge and dip into each morning. One big pot lasts a week. To make the rice soup you need your ahchun, which holds about three quarts of water. Add a teaspoon of salt or a small amount in the dip of your palm. Bring the water to a boil and add one cup of 100 percent long-grain scented Thailand rice. I like a triple-A Milagrosa, which comes in a ten-kilo bag for $8.50 to $10.00. To the rice water add a tablespoon or a dollop of olive oil, to keep the rice from sticking and add a bit of flavour. Three litres of 100 percent olive oil costs 11

$10.00 to $15.00. Ten kilos of rice lasts about three months, as does three litres of oil. Stir the rice well, bring it back to a boil and then simmer for about three hours, keeping the water up until the rice has the consistency of fleece and the grain has broken down and is like a thick porridge. This you store in a couple of containers in the fridge. Don't worry about space in the fridge. If you need this book you will be someone with a perpetually empty fridge. Only your crisper will get constant use. By the way, this budget also allows you one kilo of peanut butter a month, one kilo of honey a month, a pound of butter every two or three weeks (mine costs $2.49 at the supermarket) and half a 12

loaf of bread per week. This is your snack food along with the occasional, say once a month, purchase of half a kilo of medium cheese on sale. Now back to breakfast. My regular breakfast is what I call "Soothing Soup/' Once the base is made it takes approximately ten minutes to prepare in a pot or one minute in a microwave. Put one cup of the thick rice porridge in a pot. Into it crack an egg. Beat together, adding enough water to create a thick soup consistency or whatever you prefer. Heat, trying not to boil it. This takes five minutes on the stove, one minute in the micro (which I don't have, but tried at my mother's place in the country.) When hot, pour into a bowl and add a tablespoon 14

of honey or Chinese brown sugar. Unpasteurized honey direct from the beekeeper is best. Finally, add a pat of salted butter and garnish with a sprinkle of black pepper. For total enjoyment have both the honey and butter in the first two or three spoonfuls, before they have melted completely. If you feel your system needs some lightening and cleaning, then make your soup with black calamata olives, which I get from my local Italian grocery, and some black moss (also called angel hair), which comes from the Chinese grocery. Black moss grows in the mountains in China like a lichen. It took me the longest time to find it until I realized a Chinese angel would have black hair. 15

That's when I learned it's also called "black moss/' The Chinese use it mainly at New Year's as it is considered a good luck food. To make this "cleansing soup" start with a cup of thick rice soup. In a separate bowl place a tablespoon of black moss, which you have to separate, as it clumps together. To this add half a cup of boiling water and then pour the mixture into the rice soup. Heat all ingredients in a pot. While heating, add five to seven black olives. Sometimes I also stir-fry an egg and add it to the soup. Use lots of salt and pepper on the egg. You should eat this once a week. 16

These are the two quick soups I eat for breakfast. With the rice soup base there are many variations, including stirring in mixed vegetables, but more on that later.

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Lunch: For lunch I eat noodles and stir-fried vegetables. There is a wide variety of noodles. Three that I use are: long straight plain noodles, egg noodle biscuits, and green bean vermicelli, which is for soups. The long noodles are available for about $4.00 for five pounds. The noodle biscuits come in packages of eight for $1.49 and are called, for some reason, imitation egg noodles. The vermicelli is also known as glass noodle or bean thread and costs about the same. Cooking green bean noodles is a bit different. I don't eat them very often, but they are good for 19

you. The noodles cook very quickly, in about two minutes. I drain them, but don't wash them. For a light lunch I put the drained noodles on top of steamed or stir-fried vegetables. Make a quick sauce with soya sauce, sesame oil and sugar heated together in the wok and pour it over them. For soup you can thin out the rice soup base and add the cooked noodles at the very end. To prepare lunch, I bring a small pot of salted water to a boil, using half a teaspoon of salt. When the water boils, I throw in two egg noodle biscuits; if you want the long noodles, measure them like spaghetti. I add a little olive oil to the water to keep the noodles from sticking. 20

While the noodles are cooking, which takes from five to seven minutes, I wash and prepare the vegetables. First I mince a clove of garlic with an equal-sized piece of peeled fresh ginger. In the sink I carefully wash some bok choi. There are several kinds of leafy Chinese vegetables which loosely fall under the bok choi label. There is small bok choi, which has white spoon-like stalks, a full leafy head and comes in a bunch. There is Shanghai bok choi, which looks similar, but is a little larger and has green stalks. Then there is large bok choi, which is about twelve inches and has big white spoon-like stalks and green leaves. As well there is a bok choi with 22

narrower leaves and often some yellow flowers and a round white stalk; and finally, a Chinese broccoli which is all green with asparagus-like stems, but is a bit tough—I don't use it very often. I prefer the small, the Shanghai and the round stock bok choi with yellow flowers. I also use ordinary bean sprouts or soya bean sprouts, which have a large bean and strong flavour; I keep bean sprouts in water in the fridge for freshness. I also use Chinese egg plant. These aubergines, which are long and narrow like a banana, are not bitter and taste great. For lunch, I try to keep the number and type of vegetables to a minimum for ease and speed. My preference is for one spring 23

onion, four or five leaves of small bok choi or Shanghai bok choi, or a combination plus about a third of an eggplant cut length-wise in quarters. First chop the onion and put it with the minced garlic and ginger. The bok choi must be washed thoroughly as often it is grown in sand, especially in the winter. Chop this into one-inch pieces. The eggplant is cut as stated above. By the time this is done, the noodles are ready, so empty and clean the sink and get a colander ready. Put the noodles into the colander and wash with cold water to stop cooking and clean off excess starch. They can sit to drip dry while the vegetables cook. Heat your wok, set your element to high, add a couple 24

tablespoons of olive oil; different people like different oils for smokability and flavour, experiment and find one you like. Both corn oil and canola are good and one-fifth the cost of olive oil. Olive oil is a luxury I indulge in for flavour, but it doesn't throw my budget off. Next, put in the ginger, garlic and onion, cook and stir for a few seconds: they should be sizzling. Then add the bok choi, bean sprouts and eggplant. If you use hard vegetables like broccoli or carrots, cook hardest to softest. This takes a bit of practice. Stir the bean sprouts, bok choi and eggplant with your long-handled shovel-like spatula, add a sprinkle each of sugar and salt. The eggplant will cook 26

dark and soft, but don't let it become mushy. The green of the vegetables will heighten in colour. Leave them with some crunch, but not too crunchy. Cooked vegetables are easier to digest than raw salads. When the stir-frying is done, put the vegetables in a large bowl. Add a touch more oil to the wok and throw in the noodles, stirring with the Chinese spatula so the noodles don't stick. Turn them till they are coated in oil, then add a dollop each of oyster-flavoured sauce, chili sauce (my favourite is ginger garlic chili, but I can only find it once in a blue moon) and soya. There are light and dark soy sauces. I choose something called "all-purpose 27

soya/' which is between the two. Stir the noodles till hot again, then add to the bowl of vegetables. Bon appetit! Another lunch dish I enjoy is rice soup with vegetables, tofu and egg. For this meal start with a stir-fry. Again, mince garlic and ginger. Clean and cut up a shallot, a few leaves of bok choi, some eggplant, and broccoli florets or stalk. Broccoli stalk must be peeled so only the heart is left and is cut on the diagonal, like cutting a banana for a sundae. You can also use bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage (nappa), or low bah, the Chinese radish. Low bah must be sliced thinly. As well, there is a funny green cucumber-shaped melon with little 28

hairs on it, which looks and tastes like a zucchini when peeled. Vegetables such as low bah (dai con), carrots or broccoli stalk must be sliced fairly thin, otherwise they take too long to cook. Two other vegetables that are great in soup are black dried Chinese mushrooms (make sure you select them with both stems and tops) and ear fungus. Both of these items need to be soaked overnight. Four mushrooms and a couple of pieces of fungus are plenty for a serving. Remember, we are cooking for one here. Clean and prepare vegetables. Start with the ginger, garlic and onion, then the hard vegetables, then the soft, and finally the leaves as you stir-fry in a hot wok. I have my 30

element on high almost all the time. Cook in a couple of tablespoons of oil. If you stir-fry vegetables by themselves, there should be no oil left in the wok when you take them out. When cooking, you can speed things up by adding a tablespoon or so of water to the hot wok and put on the lid till the water has steamed away, then stir some more. When cooking at this heat you have to be careful not to let things burn. When the vegetables are cooked, put them aside. Add a touch of oil and lightly stir-fry an egg, then add a cup of rice soup from the container. At lunch I use more soup, add water to make a thick soupy consistency and stir in the egg. Add one 31

square of tofu cut in four. I buy my tofu from the Chinese store in a small container, which holds six pieces, enough for a week at about $1.40. Each time you take a piece out, you must wash it and change the water in the container. Tofu is bean curd and comes in many consistencies; usually there are two types in the Chinese store, firm-smooth and soft-smooth. I like the firm-smooth as it is all purpose. I don't like the rough-textured kind. Bean curd is full of protein. By the way, mushrooms are full of amino acids, great to help in the digestion of non-meat eaters. 32

To the tofu, egg and rice soup, add chili sauce, oyster sauce, soya sauce, a touch of red rice wine vinegar ($1.50 a bottle), a drop or two of sesame oil and a bit of sugar. Stir, then add the vegetables, stirring a bit more, then fill a bowl and eat. This will satisfy one person. Another easy lunch is stir-fried vegetables with stir-fried rice. The first thing you do is steam left-over rice to make it fluffy and get rid of the granular texture. When the rice is steamed about ten to fifteen minutes, take the stir-fried vegetables out of the wok and add a little oil to the hot wok. Throw in an egg. Fry and stir until 34

almost done, then add to the rice. Stir the rice and chop quickly so it doesn't stick, then add a dollop of oyster sauce, and a little chili sauce and soya sauce. Keep stirring and chopping with the spatula until the rice and egg are in little bits, separated but together. The rice will look a bit dry, but you will see the oil in it slightly. It will be a nice Indian-red colour with flecks of yellow. Put it in your bowl beside the hot stir-fried vegetables. Sometimes it's fun to put a little grated cheese on top ... if you still have some.

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Dinner: Now we get to dinner. You will find you have to eat fairly regularly, as these meals last only three or four hours each, maybe five. For dinner I eat steamed rice and eggs and steamed vegetables with tofu and a sauce. By the way, all these meals are accompanied by Tik Kuan Yin tea, a Chinese Oolong tea, $2.19 a box. You can either make it in the pot or the cup, depending on how many people you are entertaining. For myself, I use a mug that holds about two cups. This tea has caffeine, but if you use the same leaves all day, as I do, it is economical, and as evening draws near, you are drinking mainly hot water. I start with 36

about a tablespoon of dried leaves for my first cup in the morning, pouring in the water when it boils. I drink about ten cups a day, but the last seven are fairly weak. As you can see, I eat about three eggs a day; this is no problem in such a low fat diet, where eggs and tofu are the main protein source. Start with a cup of the long-grain scented white rice. Put in a medium-size saucepan and add water (stir and pour off water four or five times). Washing the rice cleans away excess starch. Next, add 1 3/4 cup cold water to the washed rice and put it on high heat. I add a 1/2 teaspoon salt and the same of olive 38

oil. Bring to a boil while stirring so the grains stay separate. When it boils, turn to simmer and cover for twenty-five minutes. In the meantime, clean and prepare vegetables. Typically I will use a piece of broccoli floret, which I clean and cut lengthwise. (This diet is great for skinny young rock and rollers.) I also clean and cut lengthwise one-third of an eggplant. Thinly slice some peeled low bah and zucchini melon (slightly thicker). Clean two or three kinds of bok choi and cut about three pieces of each. About ten minutes before the rice is cooked, start the steamer heating to a boil. The steamer is about ten inches in diameter, so you choose a dinner plate smaller 39

than this with slightly up-turned sides to hold the sauce (recipe to follow). You also need a piece of tofu cleaned and cut in four and some minced ginger and garlic. Use about a half-inch square of peeled ginger and a big clove of garlic. When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off. The steamer is ready. On a plate, put the melon and low bah, over this the leaves, then the bok choi stocks. Lay the broccoli, like spokes of a wheel and between them, the eggplant. Top it off with a small handful of bean sprouts. Presentation is as important as great taste. Turn the heat on under the wok, put the vegetable plate in the steamer, add a tablespoon of oil 40

to the wok, stir in the minced garlic and ginger. At this point you could also add sliced shallots and pre-soaked dried mushrooms. Stir a bit, then add the four squares of tofu and turn without breaking. Now that the wok is hot, pour in the sauce while stirring. What sauce? The sauce you made while the rice was cooking. Into a small bowl put about 3/4 of a cup cold water. To this stir in approximately 3/4 of a tablespoon corn starch (it will turn milky). Use your eating chop sticks to stir. Then add a dollop each of the following: soya sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce, red wine vinegar (use more soya sauce and less vinegar). Add a few drops of sesame oil. 42

Stir, add 1/2 teaspoon sugar and a few shakes of pepper. This mixture will settle out, so stir it as you add it to the wok with the condiments and tofu. Stir gently in the wok so as not to bruise the tofu. Cover and cook at high heat for a minute or so. Remember, the sauce must be cooked in the time it takes to steam the vegetables—about three to five minutes. While this is happening, put half the rice in a bowl. Check the vegetables: the eggplant should be soft, the broccoli light emerald green, the low bah not hard anymore, but still chewy. Turn off the element, put the Chinese spatula under the vegetable plate and tip off excess water into steamer, 43

then lift out vegetable plate. Check the wok. The sauce will be boiling, and that's all right, it is a bit thick now and looks slightly caramelized (check it a couple of times while cooking so that the tofu doesn't stick). The sauce has gone from a light coffee colour to caramel red-brown. Stir, then pour on top of the vegetables. Scoop it all out of the wok, as there is one step left. (By the way, if you used mushrooms, use the mushroom water for the sauce.) Now that the vegetable sauce is ready and the rice is served, put the wok back on a high heat with a tablespoon of olive oil and stir fry two eggs, which you put on top of the rice. Add salt and pepper and stir the eggs into the rice. 44

At this moment the kettle boils. Add water to your used tea leaves. Dinner is served, and if your timing is right, it all comes together when the rice has sat for three minutes. Repeat this process forever . . . .

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Typeset at Carleton University Press in Stempel Garamond, 14/18. Printed with flourescent inks in Ottawa, Canada, by HBTechnoLith. Text stock is 80 Ib. Jenson, satin finish.