Using what you have.

It came to pass this week that I had a bit of food I bought, but didn’t get around to using. Being a bit of a penny pincher, this sort of potential waste really makes me nervous, so I made lunch out of it. The items in question were a bunch of asparagus, and two or three cups of day old rice.

Since day old rice is the preferred ingredient in stir fried rice, that was my immediate thought as to what to cook, and I did. Still, it wasn’t easy to just trust to asparagus and rice to make a meal. I have, however, known several individuals of Asian origin who have told me that such limited combinations can be quite satisfying, so I gave it a try. And it worked!

What you’ll need:

one bunch of asparagus, washed, with the tough parts cut off, and cut into bite size bits

2-3 cups of day old rice

minced garlic, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper to taste

2 table spoons of oyster flavor sauce

a dash of concentrated lemon juice

a drizzle of sesame seed oil

olive oil for cooking

an appropriate wok like skillet

Cooking: heat your skillet on high. Add enough olive oil to coat the cooking surface and let it heat until it starts to smoke. Add garlic and crushed red pepper to taste – I suggest going heavy on both. Toss briefly to season the oil, then add the asparagus and the lemon and just a tiny bit of sesame seed oil. Stir fry until it’s just getting tender, then add the oyster flavor sauce. Toss to coat and cook for another minute. Add the rice and, while tossing and stirring, cook until everything is heated through and evenly distributed. Add salt and pepper to taste, mix some more, and serve.

Note: I know that this sounds far too simple to be good and I thought the same thing, until I tasted it. Honestly, I was just throwing something together for a quick lunch bite to tide me over until supper, and I figured to add some onion and meat to what I didn’t eat to make a good later meal. Didn’t happen. I put one scoop on my plate and sat down in front of the computer to write something while I ate a bland lunch. Sucked the food down, then went back for seconds, then thirds! Really, I ate it all. Every last bit. Even better, I was so stuffed on this simple vegetable dish, that I didn’t eat supper!

If you give this a try I would truly love to have some feed back!

Enjoy,
the Grit