Snow Edition: Filipino Fried Rice (With Guest Post by C)

Last week in Nashville it snowed. Readers from the northeast must be thinking, “Yeah, so?” But the fact that the city of Nashville has no equipment whatsoever to combat icy roads means that the presence of snow shuts the city down. It didn’t help that after it snowed an ice storm came through, covering the city in stunningly beautiful, dangerous ice. It's poetic really, and sort of speaks to the balance in life that beauty is usually accompanied by danger.

C and I had just come home from our Valentine’s Day trip to Chicago a mere 2 hours before the storm hit. We made it home at 1:30 am and awoke to a powdered sugar world. We were stuck. To make matters worse, all the stores in the city had shut down, but honestly, there was no point in venturing out when you had fleece pajamas and a Netflix account.

The only thing was, we had no food in the house. I mean, almost none. We knew we were going to be away for the weekend, so we hadn’t bothered to buy groceries. And that stuff about snow coming? To Nashville? Pfft! We didn’t believe it! Boy, did we regret that skepticism, because by about 5 pm after eating nothing all day, we were really, really hungry.

I peered into our sad looking, nearly empty fridge. All we had were 2 eggs and green onions. That was it. I opened the freezer and noted a package of frozen shrimp and a package of frozen longanisa, which is a chubby little Filipino sausage that’s chock full of spices. C was morosely staring at our cupboard, “All we have is a bag of rice” he said in a brittle voice. It was at that moment I realized I could make some dinner out of this motley crew of ingredients.

I relaxed, poured myself and C a glass of red wine, shooed him to the couch with his copy of “Criminal Law: Cases and Materials” and set to work.


Ingredients:

Frozen Longanisa (This can be bought at any Filipino store, but most Asian markets carry them as well. Mine were already cured, which made the cooking process really quick)

Frozen Cooked Shrimp (Tails off and de-veined.)

Green onion
2 Eggs
Rice (Any kind will do, but I’d be a bad Asian if I didn’t tell you to try to use rice of good quality.)
Chili Olive Oil
Sesame Seed Oil
Soy sauce
Garlic Power (Mine has parsley in it too.)
Chili powder
Pepper

Performance:
While I assembled my ingredients I asked C to start cooking some rice. He’s actually become quite the expert on rice cookers these days, and I thought it would be fun to have him guest author the bit about rice. C writes:


Calynn called me back from the couch to cook her some rice. A few years ago, when I was in Japan, I learned about the wonders of computerized rice cookers. Rejected by most westerners as a silly affectation, high-end Japanese-built rice cookers are held in the highest regard by Asians from Changchun to Singapore. If you’ve never had rice cooked in a good rice cooker, you can’t fully understand what you’re missing. These things make essentially perfect rice—of any type—with just a few clicks through some menus on a screen. Last summer, I bought myself a rice cooker to end all arguments, a Zojirushi NP-HBC10. At the time, this purchase caused me all sorts of grief from more practical people; however, all the rice cooker’s detractors have at last been won over. My computerized contraption has an LCD screen on its front, a superb non-stick pot in the middle, and a speaker that plays “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on its back. Lest you forget its illustrious provenance, MADE IN JAPAN is emblazoned on the front, in letters as large as the brand name.

I rinsed off two cups of short-grain white sushi rice and poured them into the rice cooker. The cooker has little hash marks to show you how much water to use. After filling the pot appropriately, I closed the lid, set the program to the type of rice I was using, and pressed the COOK button. After the machine serenaded me with my favorite lullaby, I reluctantly returned to the couch and engrossed myself in second-degree murder cases.


…And I’m back! I hope you enjoyed C’s addition. Let’s return to our regularly scheduled recipe:

While C made the rice I de-frosted the longanisa and shrimp in warm water and cut the green onions into little emerald rings. Once the longanisa was no longer frozen, I cut them into medallions and tossed them into a wok glazed with chili olive oil. I cooked the longanisa until they were crispy on the outside, then added the shrimp. The longanisa imparted lots of different spices that the shrimp absorbed, and since the shrimp were already cooked, it took only a few seconds in the wok to get them pink and adorably curled. I tossed in the green onions and took a moment to appreciate how pretty all the ingredients looked, all tumbled together in the wok. I then added C’s rice and shimmied in soy sauce, sesame oil, chili powder, garlic powder, and pepper. I combined everything, then asked C to crack two eggs into the middle of the mixture, and stirred vigorously to scramble the eggs into the waiting rice, shrimp, onions, and longanisa.

C dubbed the meal “Filipino Fried Rice,” and I realized that’s exactly what it should be called. We ate our dinner with white and blue ceramic chopsticks we bought at an antique mall in Charlottesville, Virginia before we moved. The hot food made us take quick inhales with each bite to cool our tongues. We talked about how we were snowed in last year, when I made pancit in our little barn house in the Virginia countryside. How quiet it was there with nothing but the trees and each other for company. And how now, even in this loud city, the snow hushed everyone up.

Verde Chicken and Venison Enchilada

Tonight I wanted to take a second stab at Mexican food, but experiment with traditional flavors, and maybe add my own twist. I peered into my fridge and noted the following: leftover venison (from the tacos the night before), chicken, plain Greek yogurt, and a jar of salsa verde. I decided then and there, that I was going to make enchiladas. Never having made enchiladas before, I allowed my past devourings at Mexican restaurants to guide my hands in the kitchen. I announced my maiden voyage to C, who was poring over his casebooks at the table. “I’ve never had enchiladas before,” he grinned. This was a small comfort knowing that if I messed this up, he’d be none the wiser.


You will need:
A lasagna pan
6-7 large corn tortillas
1 bag low fat Mexican shredded cheese
Package of chicken tenderloins
About 2 cups ground venison sausage (mine was already cooked)
Half a small bag of frozen corn
Broccoli
Beech mushrooms
Cilantro
Green onion
1 jar of salsa verde
3 cups Greek yogurt
Chili infused olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chili powder
Garlic Powder
Caribbean jerk seasoning
Cumin


My adventure began by cooking the chicken on medium in a pot with chili infused olive oil. I then removed the chicken, shredded it with a fork, then returned it to the pot. I added the leftover venison from the fridge and warmed it through. Then I poured in about ¾ of the jar of salsa, 1 cup and ½ of the Greek yogurt, and about half a bag of frozen corn. I also included some broccoli and beech mushrooms, (even though those ingredients are decidedly not Mexican) just because. I shimmied in salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, Caribbean jerk seasoning, and cumin all to my taste (which is spicy). For freshness, I included a handful of green onions, and cilantro. I stirred, waited for my potion to bubble, then tasted--not bad. The contents in the pot were somewhat soupy, so I decided the leftover juices would become part of the topping sauce. I then preheated the oven to 400 degrees, oiled my lasagna pan with the chili infused olive oil, and got out 6 tortillas. With a slotted ladle, I spooned my mixture down the center of a tortilla, folded in the sides, and laid it gently down into the lasagna pan. I repeated this 5 times, snuggling each next to the other like children in sleeping bags. I then turned my attention back to the leftover soup/sauce in the pot. I added the last ¼ of the jar of salsa verde, and about 1 cup and ¼ of Greek yogurt. I tasted, then added more chili powder and pepper. My topping sauce complete, I drizzled it happily over my cozy little enchiladas, sprinkled some low fat Mexican cheese on top, then put them in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the top was golden bronze and bubbling. By the time it was done, C had already emerged from his casebooks and was sniffing expectantly in the kitchen. Once removed from the oven, I gave it a flourish of cilantro and green onions. He loved it.

Venison Tacos

Five years ago, I spent some time in Mexico teaching ballet classes at a fitness spa and resort. The meals served for the guests and employees were all vegan in nature, and while all the food was amazing I had a craving… for meat. I spoke of this desire to my fellow instructors and they informed me that I could procure exactly that for which I yearned at a local taquería stand in town. So one night, they spirited me away to this magical stand, which while incredibly tasty and satisfied all my needs, left a little to be desired in the manner in which they served their food. As I stood in line, repeating the phrase in Spanish I knew would get me what I wanted, I watched as the cooks seized paper plates, covered them with a wrinkled grocery bag, and tossed the tacos onto them with a splat. When the customers were finished, the clean up process was simply removing the used grocery bag and placing on a new one on the paper plate. The smell of the tacos was so heavenly that I didn’t care. When it was my turn, I said in a terrible American accent, “Tacos de maíz con carne asada, por favor,” then repeatedly said over and over again in my head, “Please God; don’t let me get hepatitis from these tacos!” Of course I was fine, and the sublime perfection of the tacos was amazing. Tonight, I decided to make a quick, homemade version with ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients:
1lb. Venison sausage

Shredded cheese
Green onion
Salsa
Sour cream
Mixed greens
Soft corn taco shells

Performance:
I began by cooking the venison sausage in a skillet until cooked through. I took great satisfaction in using this particular venison sausage because it was made from a deer C procured last hunting season. The processing company he uses puts a ton of great spices into their sausage, so the flavor is very intense and the meat is tender. I then spooned the sausage onto the centers of the soft taco shells, and topped with salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, green onion, and mixed greens. It was too tasty and too easy.