Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Rosemary Home Fries

I was fortunate enough to know both of my grandmothers.  Both of them were more than gifted when it came to the kitchen although it was in very different ways.  My father's mother's regular cooking was never really to my taste.  It was very Southern, and very WASPY, and just not what I was accustomed to.  I've been assured that her fried chicken was incomparable, but I've never been a big fan of fried chicken so that would have been wasted on me.  Same with her split pea soup.  As a baker, though, no one could really compare with her.  This is especially true when it comes to pastry.  My mother's mother was never a baker.  I literally don't think I can remember her ever making a dessert at home.  For proper cooking, though, she was a veritable deity.  I was fortunate enough to grow up more or less in her kitchen.  She's the one who formed my tastes and ideas about food.

One dish she used to make on a more or less regular basis was what she called "home fries."  Now, when I go to a restaurant and order home fries with brunch or whatever they bear no resemblance at all to my grandmother's home fries.  They are tasty and involve potatoes but that's about it.  My grandmother's home fries were whole potatoes, usually peeled, and sliced very thin.  They were accompanied by fat and onion and, sometimes, salt.  It is those potatoes that I still crave, and those home fries that inspired this dish.  I wanted to make a starchy side to satisfy my husband's need for carbs after a particularly intense workout.  I had all this duck fat left over, rendered from the duck recipe I posted yesterday.  I wanted to add a little flavor to the dish, to tie the different dishes together a little better, so I added some chopped fresh rosemary.  (Between the duck and the potatoes my poor rosemary bush is rather badly shorn, but it will grow back.)  The potatoes were exactly what I wanted them to be, and you can't ask for more than that in a dish.

Rosemary Home Fries (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 pounds potatoes, washed and very thinly sliced

About 8 tablespoons cooking fat - I used rendered duck fat from another recipe and duck fat matches very well with potatoes, but olive oil would be healthier

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 - 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped and divided

Equipment:

• Very large saute pan

1. It may be helpful to have the lid to your pan nearby.  I've never had the pan catch fire on me and I've never heard that my grandmother did either, but that doesn't mean it won't catch fire on you.
2. Heat the fat in the saute pan until it is very hot.  
3. Add the potatoes.  Fry until about half done.
4. Add the onion and half the rosemary.  Fry until the potatoes are entirely done to your desired degree of crispness.  This involves careful attention, so make this the only dish you're focusing on right now.
5. Transfer to the serving vessel and garnish with the remaining rosemary.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Barley Bread

Some of you may have noticed that nothing has been posted for a few weeks.  It's not that I haven't been cooking.  It's that I haven't been writing.  Life has become a lot more complicated recently - mostly in good ways, or ways that could be reasonably interpreted as good anyway - and I haven't had more than a few moments to sit down and write anything up.  After a few weeks of frustration I asked my husband to stay home with our daughter for a day while I went off-site with a pile of sources and my computer.  Free from distractions I can focus, more-or-less, on writing up recipes.  Hopefully I can get my backlog under control!  Anyway, this recipe dates back to November 23.  That's right.  November 23.  That's Thanksgiving, for the record.  I haven't had a chance to write this one up since Thanksgiving.  It's almost Valentine's Day now.

There's a lot of tension about bread lately.  It was brought formally to my attention when I was reading Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, which I received for Christmas, but I guess it's been hovering around the back of my consciousness for a while.  As a culture we went through a phase where carbohydrates were considered Bad.  I can kind of see it, actually.  Carbohydrates provide energy to the body.  When life was more physical - when people walked where they needed to go, and mostly worked at physically demanding jobs in factories or on farms - we needed lots and lots of carbohydrates to keep us going through the day.  Now most folks in the West at least - especially in the United States, much of which was designed around the car - people drive where they need to go and work at desks.  We don't need as much energy, but our culinary culture hasn't caught up with the times.  Energy means calories, and what the body can't eat it stores as fat.  A loaf of bread a day was fine a hundred years ago.  Now - not so much.  Bread, like most other starches, contains lots of calories.

The thing is, we still need energy.  We need less of it but we still need it, in quantities that depend on our activity levels and metabolisms.  I have no metabolism to speak of.  My husband's metabolism works best with lots of carbs, and if I try to cut them out there is Woe and Drama.  I decided to compromise by using whole grains.  Whole grains contain fiber, which everyone needs.  There are other nutrients in there, vitamins and other things the body needs.  I'm not a nutritionist, I'm a kind of harried mother, so I'll leave it at "fiber and stuff."  I try to make things that are healthy for my family and just eat less of the things with a lot of calories.

I developed this recipe myself, although I had a lot of help.  One source I reached for fairly frequently is the Basic Bread recipe from The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens.  I don't feel confident enough in my own knowledge to know what proportions of flour and salt and whatnot without recourse to some sort of guidance.  It went over pretty well.  No one complained about the whole grain bread.  I feel like the barley flour gave it an interesting flavor, although that could be in my head.  Still, it was a decent bread and you could do a lot worse.

Whole Wheat Barley Bread (serves 10 generously; approx. $0.31/serving)

11 ounces whole wheat bread flour

11 ounces whole wheat all-purpose flour

13 ounces barley flour

2 1/2 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 tablespoons buttermilk powder

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Bowl
• Baking sheets

1. Combine the honey, water and yeast in the bowl.  Set aside until the yeast is frothy.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer.
3. Add the yeast combination and knead on the lowest speed until the ingredients have blended more or less.  Add more water or flour as needed.
4. Increase speed very slightly and knead until the dough is smooth and just tacky and forms into a ball.
5. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
6. Punch the dough down.  Divide it in half and shape into two loaves.
7. Cover and set aside until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
8. Preheat your oven to 425°.
9. Make three slits in the top of each loaf.
10. Bake 40 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway through baking.
11. Cool completely before eating.

Recipe: Salmon in Mango Sauce

As is pretty typical of most American women, I've got an awful lot going on.  I've got this website.  I've got some other things I'm trying to start up.  I've recently become the chief administrator for a local non-profit.  I've got the house.  I've got a daughter who is turning two right about now.  I've got the dog.  I've got appointments here, and deadlines there, and so on and so forth.  I almost never get a chance to write up recipes the same day that I create them.  I'm aware of this, so I've got quite a lot of scrap paper in the kitchen.  I write notes on the scrap paper and set it aside until I get to actually write them up.  The problem with this, of course, is that paper gets lost.  It gets blown off tables in a toddler-inspired breeze.  It gets coffee spilled on it.  It gets burned.  The longer I have to put off recipe-writing the more likely it is that my notes will disappear.  In this case the dog ate it.  The dog actually ate my notes.  I am not making this up.  He ate my notes.  I screamed and yelled and despaired.  Then my husband, wonderful man that he is, found some clear tape and re-assembled the notes.

This dish was inspired by a chance discovery in my freezer.  At the beginning of baseball season... in 2010... I pureed a large quantity of mangoes to be used for daiquiris if my team were being blown out.  (This is a silly tradition of ours.  Read more about it here, if you really want to.)  I found one three-cup container of mango puree in the freezer.  It was not freezer-burned in any way.  I thought, hey, this sounds like fun.  So I defrosted it, and a couple of salmon fillets along with it.  It is a very simple dish to make, and a very flavorful dish.  I would have to insist on using pureed mango, preferably mango that you pureed yourself, and not mango nectar, mango juice, mango slushee, mango sorbet, or any other kind of commercially available mango product.  Those will all contain added sugar if not additional preservatives.  These are calories that few people living in the West need, and makes the dish far too sweet anyway.  I mean, it's up to you, they're your taste buds and you know what will please them, but for me just the mango is sweet enough.

Salmon in Mango Sauce

2 salmon fillets, cut into pieces

3 cups mango puree

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons ginger paste

2 tablespoons garlic paste

4 green chiles - I like serranos but you know your family's tolerance better than I do - diced

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the ginger paste and garlic paste.  Saute about 2 minutes.
3. Add the chiles.  Saute about 2 minutes.
4. Add the mango.  Bring to a boil and reduce for about a minute.
5. Add the salmon.  Cook until the fish is cooked through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Baghdadi Yogurt Dip

Recipe Source: al-Baghdadi, Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Karim.  A Baghdad Cookery Book.  Charles Parry, trans.  Prospect Books, Totnes 2005 p. 88.

I have two copies of A Baghdad Cookery Book.  One is translated by A. J. Arberry.  It came out, I believe, sometime in the 1930s and was later included in a much larger volume entitled Medieval Arab Cookery.  The other was published as its own volume and was cited above.  This was the first book of medieval recipes I ever owned.  It has, unfortunately, been lost somewhere in the recesses of my house for quite some time.  Recently the house decided to cough up the book.  I don't know why.  It was just suddenly on the shelf again.  This happens sometimes, I don't know why.  Anyway, I prefer to work with this translation rather than the other.  I don't feel that I'm qualified to comment on the quality or accuracy of the translations themselves, but the style of English in the Perry translation is much easier to work with.

Anyway, the book made its re-appearance in time for me to start work on our New Year's Eve celebration.  I wasn't necessarily setting out to make a medieval dish for the party, but I happened to be flipping through the book and saw the recipe and decided that it looked good. I like that about a lot of the recipes from the medieval Middle East.  I mean, medieval people had taste buds too, and food for the classes that left recipes didn't need to taste like dust.  But a lot of the medieval Middle Eastern recipes fit right in with modern tastes and preferences.  You can mix them right into a modern dinner or party and no one would ever know the difference.  Try this one at your Super Bowl party.

As is usually the case when I'm trying to re-create a medieval recipe I didn't make a lot of changes.  The original wanted mint.  My husband is allergic to mint so I left it out.  I substituted tarragon.  The two are nothing alike of course, but I really like tarragon and it at least has a similar strength to mint.

Baghdadi Yogurt Dip (serves 16; approx. $0.51/serving)

1 large leek, finely chopped

4 celery stalks, finely chopped, leaves separated

1 small bunch tarragon, finely chopped

1 large tub Greek yogurt

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Kosher salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Equipment:

• Large bowl

1. Combine the leek, celery stalks, celery leaves, tarragon and yogurt in the large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle the salt, mustard and walnuts over the top.
4. Transfer to a serving vessel and serve.

Recipe: Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew

Whenever we host Sunday dinners I try to have at least one vegetarian entree on offer.  I'm not a vegetarian and I have limited patience for other people's food choices, but people have different reasons for going vegetarian and not all of them are matters of personal choice.  I know a couple of people who are actually allergic to meat, and a couple of people besides myself who are allergic to certain types of meat.  A vegetarian entree offers them something, and if no vegetarians show up then we can all enjoy a healthy side dish.  After all, vegetarian food shouldn't be a penance.  If the dish acknowledges the actual, natural flavor of the ingredients without pretending that it's meat then there is no reason to feel deprived by a lack of meat.

Right.  Soapbox away.  This was not intended to be an original recipe.  When I set out to make it I had an issue of Better Homes and Gardens open in front of me.  Then I realized that the author wanted me to jump through an awful lot of hoops to make this dish.  She wanted the squash to be roasted.  She wanted the beans to be cooked a certain way, and she wanted a certain type of tomato, and so on and so forth.  All of these things took time.  I did not have time.  What I had was squash, chickpeas, hungry diners and a knitting lesson waiting for me to finish cooking.  I looked at the recipe again.  I was coming down off a nasty head cold and was in a mood, and finally I just ran out of patience.  "(Author's Name) can bite me," I said, forgetting that I had a kitchen full of hungry diners.  "Twice."  And then I went ahead with my recipe.

This amused the crowd to no end.  The dish was a satisfying and flavorful accompaniment to the main meal.  Even my daughter liked it and she's not a huge fan of chickpeas.

Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew (serves 8; approx. $1.38/serving)

2 delicata squash, peeled, seeded and diced

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 very large jar canned whole tomatoes (a couple of 28-oz cans should do just fine)

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon chile powder

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 large bunch dill, chopped

Equipment:

• Large deep saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onions and garlic.  Saute until the onions are soft.
3. Add the spices and the bay leaves.  Mix well and saute until fragrant.
4. Add the squash.  Saute about 3 minutes, or until coated in the pan juices.
5. Add the chickpeas and the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the squash is tender.
7. Add the dill.  Cook about a minute.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Cabbage and Squash Rice

Well, I should have known better.  First I took two foods that I have never loved: winter squash and cabbage.  I figured, "Oh, I'll cook something with them.  A side dish."  I ran out of brown rice so I went to a certain very large chain of warehouse "club" stores and I got this huge, massive sack of brown rice.  I figured it would be the same as any other bulk brown rice.  Wrong.  Wrong wrong wrong.  I should have remembered the last time that I bought rice at this large warehouse chain.  I got the most incredibly glutinous rice I have ever seen.  It stuck better than glue and had about as much flavor.  I did, actually, remember it when I was shopping.  I don't remember who did the dissuading, though.  It could have been The Spouse, but it could just as easily have been me who said, "Oh, what the heck.  How bad can it be?"  I didn't think brown rice could stick this badly!  There are more disasters to come with the brown rice, don't you worry, but we can save those for another day.  Or days.  I've certainly got a large enough bin of the stuff to keep you entertained for weeks.

Anyway, for our New Year's Eve dinner I decided that I would cook up the cabbage and the squash and mix them into the rice.  This would provide a delicious, nutritious side dish to delight and amaze our acquaintance.  And to be quite honest if the guests are to be believed I'm probably the only one who didn't like this.  No one commented on the sub-par rice, at least, and people seemed to really enjoy the cabbage and squash.  I used celery seeds instead of caraway seeds because that's what I could find - I think I'm out of caraway - and maybe that had something to do with my distaste.  Anyway, I suppose this does make a decent side dish if you like cabbage, or caraway.

Cabbage and Squash Rice (serves 8; approx. $0.54/serving)

2 cups long-grain brown rice

4 cups water

1 head Savoy cabbage, shredded

1/2 butternut squash, diced

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tablespoons celery seeds

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan with lid
• Large wok with lid

1. Combine the rice and the water in the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until the liquid has been completely absorbed by the rice.  I prefer to judge this by appearance rather than time - different pans and even different rices cook differently.  For that reason I usually use a glass lid when cooking rice.  Use whatever works for you, though.  I'd guess it generally takes about 40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil in the wok.
4. Add the squash.  Reduce heat to low, cover and let steam about 10 minutes.
5. Add the cabbage.  Cook with the lid off until the cabbage is tender.
6. When the rice is ready, transfer the contents of both pots to the serving vessel.  Mix well and serve.

Recipe: Pureed Root Vegetables

Our lifestyle is... well, it's ours.  That's all there is to it.  I've tried to change aspects of it over the years but it never seems to work and we inevitably seem to fall back into our typical ways.  On the surface there are quite a lot of reasons for this, but at the end of the day there are really only two: priorities and health.  I'm sure anyone living in the greater Boston area is aware of the latest Horrible Creeping Crud that's been going around - I'd say it's probably about half allergies, given the mild weather and the people who seem hardest struck by it.  At any rate, when I'm sick I don't feel like cooking.  While I might make every effort to make food ahead of time so I don't have to cook it when I'm pressed for time or not in a culinary mindset there are only so many hours.  Inevitably some of those dishes fall by the wayside.  The other issue is priorities.  We have friends.  We enjoy their company.  Often we enjoy their company while dining out.  Sure, we could probably invite them over more often, but then we'd have to plan ahead.  There's no way to plan ahead for a phone call that consists of, "I just got a cancer diagnosis, can we get together?"  You want to get together and be supportive and if you don't have meals on hand that match the dietary restrictions of your guests that means going out.  Our lifestyle therefore requires a great deal of flexibility, which means that sometimes certain dishes don't get made.  (If it's any consolation to the moralizers out there, I really do plan for us to dine at home every night.  It just doesn't actually happen.)

That's the origin of this dish.  I found myself for whatever reason with some leftover root vegetables.  We were having a Sunday dinner and so I decided that would be a good opportunity to use some of them up.  We had half of one of those massive Macomber turnips, the kind that could probably feed an entire Ethiopian village for a week.  We had a celery root - I'd intended to do something else with it but I wound up skipping it.  We had some carrots my daughter insisted we needed, lest the world come to an end.  I decided that they would go quite well as a puree.  I'm not usually a big fan of purees, but in this case it seemed like a good thing to do.  I decided to steam the vegetables rather than boil them since steaming retains more of the nutrients in the vegetables.  I'm all about the nutrients.  This might not have been the best idea.  Some of the vegetable chunks got tender but some of them did not, and I'd gotten to a point where I feared for my steamer and for my pot.  I decided to just go with it.  This necessitated adding an extra half-cup of half-and-half, giving fat that we probably didn't actually need.  Oh well.  The dish went over well with everyone but me, even my daughter liked it.  I think my distaste had more to do with frustration at the steaming failure than anything else.  Try this on a chilly winter's evening.

Pureed Root Vegetables (serves 8; approx. $1.10/serving)

1/2 Macomber turnip (about 2 normal), peeled and chopped

1 celery root, peeled and chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 1/2 cups half-and-half

Equipment:

• Steamer
• Bowl
• Immersion blender

1. Prepare your steamer for steaming.  I prefer a basket-style steamer with multiple baskets, but there are quite a few other options out there.
2. Steam the vegetables until mostly tender.  This seemed to take about a thousand years for me, but I could be exaggerating.
3. Transfer the vegetables to the bowl.  Add the nutmeg and the half and half.
4. Use the immersion blender to puree the vegetables.
5. Serve hot.

Recipe: Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage

A good while ago - maybe the end of November, maybe early December - I found myself needing to cook.  I didn't want to.  If I remember correctly I was feeling very poorly, and I had a lot to do and less time to do it in, and I was in a truly foul mood, and I didn't want to dirty the kitchen, and so on and so forth.  This happens from time to time and that's okay, I think everyone feels that way sometimes.  For whatever reason - I think that by the time we got done discussing going out to eat all the local restaurants were closed - I found myself forced to cook despite my inclinations.  I grabbed some ingredients - whatever I had on hand - and threw some pasta on the stove.  I literally just threw it together in a very angry fashion.  I didn't even take a picture of it, because I had no intention of posting it.

I loved it.  I loved it so much I wanted to make it again.  Again and again and again.  It was an incredibly simple dish to make, but it was so delicious that it actually cured my mood.  Well, the next time I had mushrooms on hand I did make it again.  And it was just as good as it was the first time.

Soujouk is a kind of dried sausage made from beef.  It is commonly found in Islamic countries, or in Middle Eastern (or Turkish) markets here.  The nearest common American equivalent would probably be pepperoni.  If you cannot find soujouk and you are able/willing to eat pork pepperoni is probably an adequate substitute, although the seasonings will be different.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage (serves 4; approx. $2.96/serving)

1 box whole grain pasta, cooked according to package instructions

1/3 soujouk, sliced very thin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ounce grated pecorino pepato

2 1/2 10-oz containers mixed mushrooms - I used a mix of cremini and white button mushrooms - chopped

Equipment:

• Pasta pot
• Slotted spoon or spatula
• Colander
• Frying pan

1. While the pasta is cooking, heat the frying pan over medium heat.  A non-stick skillet is probably your safest bet here.
2. Add the soujouk pieces and fry until crisp.  They will release a small amount of fat.  This is fine.
3. Use the slotted spatula to evacuate the pieces of soujouk to the serving vessel and try not to snack on it while you proceed with the rest of the recipe.
4. Add the olive oil to the frying pan.  Use more or less depending on how much fat the soujouk has given up.
5. Add the mushrooms.  Reduce the heat a bit and cook until the mushrooms are tender.
6. Transfer them to the serving vessel.
7. By this point the pasta should be done but still hot.  Drain it, put it into the serving vessel and add the cheese.
8. Toss well and serve.

Recipe: Medieval Quince "Pie"

Recipe Source: Welserin, Sabina.  Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin.  Germany, 16th Century.  Find the original here.

So you already know that I've been playing with quinces a lot lately.  I truly love them, and I get a bushel of them in the fall and just go to town.  I try to find new and different uses for them, although my quince and rosemary jelly is a perennial favorite with my friends.  I love quinces in savory recipes.  In my head they're mostly a Greek or Middle Eastern fruit, although I'm not sure why I should think that.  They certainly grow in cooler climates such as New England.  I decided to force myself to move outside my usual sources and find a non-Middle Eastern recipe calling for quince.  I also wanted to make a medieval recipe for one of our Sunday dinners, so this one seemed to make sense.  After all, I thought, I've made other recipes from this cookbook and I've been delighted with the results.

I was differently enthusiastic about this one, and by "differently enthusiastic" I mean "frustrated and angered by."  I used my traditional family crust but in a whole-wheat version - I'd made several ahead of time for some other reason, so I had them just sitting in the fridge waiting to be used up.  Otherwise I just kind of went to town.  Unfortunately the crust failed miserably.  I did wind up serving it, but scooped onto plates and treated like poached fruit.  I think that the liquid in the filling was just too much for the poor little crust to handle.

My guests loved this.  If I stopped trying to think of it as a pie I loved it too.

Medieval Quince "Pie" (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 single-crust pie crust - store bought is fine

4 nice quinces, peeled, halved and cored

1/2 cup currants

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beef fat - however much you can get, rendered from a package of beef bacon should be sufficient

1/2 cup dessert wine

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Equipment:

• Pie plate
• Bowl
• Large deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 425°.
2. Render out your beef fat to the best of your ability.
3. Fry the quince halves in the fat until they are fragrant.
4. Line your pie plate with your pie crust.
5. Arrange your quince halves in the pie plate.
6. Combine the currants, first 1/4 cup raw sugar, first 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Stuff the quince cavities with this mixture.
7. In the skillet, combine the remaining ingredients.  Cook until the sugar is dissolved, then add to the pie plate.
8. Bake until the quinces are tender, about 40 minutes.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Mushroom and Bok Choy Fried Rice

A while ago I found myself with some leftover rice.  I think I'd made a batch of rice for a meal that we wound up skipping at the last minute - some friends had just gotten some less-than-stellar news and we figured we'd go be supportive or something.  I didn't want to waste the rice so I decided to go ahead and make fried rice the next evening.  I've made fried rice I think a thousand times before, but usually I've made the rice special for the fried rice.  This is the first time I can remember where I've actually made fried rice for its intended purpose: using up leftovers.  Maybe it did give me a little thrill of pride.  So what?  I'm allowed.  Anyway, I used some other leftover vegetables and came up with a tasty side dish that would do just as well for a main dish.  If you want to make it vegan omit the eggs.

Mushroom and Bok Choy Fried Rice (serves 4; approx. $1.42/serving)

3 - 4 cups cooked, cold brown rice

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

4 celery stalks, diced

4 baby bok choy, washed and chopped

10 ounces baby bella mushrooms, washed and chopped

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon garlic paste

2 tablespoons ginger paste

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the garlic and ginger pastes.  Stir-fry until fragrant, probably not much more than 30 seconds.
3. Add the celery stalks.  Stir-fry about 3 - 4 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms.  Stir-fry until the mushrooms are tender and have started to give up some of their moisture, about 3 - 4 minutes.
5. Add the baby bok choy.  Stir-fry until wilted.
6. Add the rice.  Mix well and stir-fry until thoroughly heated.
7. Make a well in the center of the wok.  Add the beaten eggs.  Let sit without stirring until the eggs begin to set up.
8. Mix thoroughly into the rice and continue to stir-fry until the eggs are thoroughly cooked.
9. Serve hot.