Now I'm Cooking! — Quick Work-Day Fridge-Cleaner-Outer

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the panicky feeling that arises when you have to find time in your crazy schedule to make something to eat for you and your family.  You want to come up with something healthy and delicious, but there are only so many hours in the day, right?  It's so tempting to over-rely on prepared foods from the grocery store or take-out from a restaurant.  But after a few such meals, my palate begins to crave something cooked with love (as my Mom would say) -- or with safe levels of salt and saturated fats (as my doctor would say).  Besides, the Earth can accommodate only so many plastic food containers in her already-stuffed-to-the-gills landfills.  (My cupboards, too, have already accepted their share, which I use in place of Tupperwares.)

And what the hell am I going to do with these little bits of this and that before they turn into biochemical science projects in my fridge:

Will these become dinner. . .or mold gardens?

I had a two-hour block of free time between students yesterday afternoon, during which I challenged myself to come up with a meal for the evening that would nourish us well and use up some of the odds and ends cluttering up the refrigerator.  This is actually my favorite kind of culinary challenge, and it often results in my throwing together seemingly incompatible ingredients that I would never think of combining if I were setting out to create a recipe, but that turn out to work amazingly well together.

And, occasionally, it results in an unappealing concoction of ingredients that truly do not belong in the same bowl.  Which kind of result will I come up with today?  Read on to find out. . . .
After I assembled the motley assortment of ingredients shown in the picture above -- some left-over boiled potatoes, a handful of radishes, a half slice of cornbread, a few stems of oregano, and a "salad" from an Indian take-out meal consisting of raw sliced onions and iceberg lettuce -- I scoured the freezer and the pantry for other things that would potentially play well with them.  I found some ground turkey in the freezer, as well as a tupperware containing some collard greens I'd chopped and steamed and frozen for future use.  Well, the future was now.

I thought I'd thaw thum foodth

One of my favorite "blank-canvas" foods -- food templates that provide a starting-point for further creativity -- is Keema, an Indian dish of ground meat with various types of vegetables and spices.  Today, I decided to create a Keema casserole, falling back on my long-honed personal cooking style -- Michael's Indian Fusion.  This version of Keema, however, would contain some ingredients never encountered on the Sub-Continent.  (In Indian culinary tradition, Keema is normally accompanied by plain rice or a rice dish and/or breads.  I have been known to serve it atop pasta and in other non-traditional ways.)

Here's the procedure, which I completed in about an hour (including taking/editing/uploading all the photos).  It was ready in plenty of time to pop it into the oven when my last student of the day arrived, to be baked while I taught, so that I could serve my meal within minutes of finishing my workday.  Brilliant!

First, I sauteed the "salad" along with several sliced garlic cloves in enough oil to cover the bottom of my pan.  I thought about picking out the pieces of chopped lettuce, but in the end, decided that they wouldn't hurt anything.  (They didn't.)

Saute-ing onions and garlic in olive oil

Once the onions had softened a bit (5 min or so), I added some spices I'd ground in my mortar (approx. 1 T coriander seed, 1 t cumin seed, 1 t turmeric powder) and continued to saute for another minute or so.

I sometimes use an electric coffee grinder, but the mortar/pestle is more fun!

Then I tossed in the ground meat, which I'd thawed a bit in hot water.  It was still in a big semi-frozen lump, so I had to keep flipping it in the pot, scraping off the thawed bits as they were heated.  Once the entire block had thawed, I stirred the meat around for a few minutes, until all the pink spots had turned cooked-looking.

You can also use ground lamb or beef, more traditional choices.  Once, I even tried using "Beef-Not," a form of TVP, with about the level of savoriness you might expect to obtain from fake meat.

Then I added to the pot a half-teaspoon salt and, stirring it in a tablespoon at a time, 4 T of whole-milk yogurt.

Stir well after adding each T of yogurt, until it is completely incorporated.

At this point, I covered the pot, turned the heat down a bit, and let the meat simmer for about 15 minutes.  Then I added the thawed greens and the raw radishes, sliced into fourths. 

Raw radishes are so pretty.

I put the lid back on the pot and let the whole concoction simmer for another 15 minutes.  (If this was going to be the end of the cooking process, I'd have left the pot on for about an hour total meat cooking time.  I stopped early in this case because I was going to bake it as well.)

During the simmering time, I'd put the boiled potatoes (chunked), oregano leaves, and some grated Asiago cheese into the bottom of a baking dish.

Potatoes, herb, cheese

I lightly beat two eggs and poured it over the top of the potatoes, creating a sort of omeletty layer on top of which I poured the Keema when it was done simmering.

Eggs added: For a REALLY quick meal, you could bake just this mixture!

After pouring the Keema over the egg layer (I'm not referring to a chicken), I crumbled the cornbread over the top and grated on some more Asiago.

Ready for baking

I baked it in my convection oven for 30 minutes at 250 degrees (while I worked on developing Danielle's chest voice and getting it to coordinate with her head voice, but that's my other blog), after which my Keema Kreation looked beautifully browned, like this:

Just try to name a food more delightful than browned, cheesy cornbread crumbs!

What a delight to emerge from my teaching room to smell the aroma arising from this dish!  A what a relief to have dinner all ready to serve.  All we had to do was crack open a bottle of hard pear cider and serve the Keema Kreation into our shallow bowl-plates.  This one was definitely in the category of "success."  I am happy to say there is enough left for tonight's dinner as well, since I am going to see Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera and will not have time to cook.   Vissi d'arte, indeed!  (Although I live for food as well.)

I would love to hear from you if you have ideas for quick-and-easy meals that can be tossed together before the workday or during brief breaks throughout the day (for those, like me, lucky enough to work within a few steps of our kitchens).  Help me stave off the need to go online to order my next dinner!  Save the earth!  Save my arteries!

This final picture is dedicated to my reader Debbie, who was kind enough to include the pictured doggie wieners in a box she was mailing to me.  Thank you, Debbie, from my whole pack!

Willy & Freddy awaiting the signal to dive into their treats.  Willy was quivering so much in anticipation that I'm surprised the photo came out in focus.