It’s
time to say goodbye to Alfred. It’s so
hard to let go and my heart is so heavy, but I know I have to do it. I postponed it for far too long and things
are still not improving. Before I get
into more depressing details, I’ll spare you the pain and anxiety of the
unknown and tell you that Alfred is our bamboo potted plant.
A
friend of mine gave me Alfred as a birthday present in my freshman year in
college. At first, I was very excited
and happy with the bamboo. I even gave
it a real name, Alfred. However, the excitement diminished when it
hit me that I would have to take care of this thing, a thought that was
terrifying to say the least. I was
actually proud of myself for keeping it alive for five years especially since I
just don’t do well with potted plants. But
Alfred was doing quite well – it was green, leafy and healthy before its
unexpected and irreversible decline. It
was like it got the five years itch and started to bail out on me. It turned yellow, lost its leaves, and its
poor skeleton stems were invaded by these horrifying black dots. Truth be told, my Alfred has been looking
anemically pale and quite depressed for more than a year now.
Frankly,
I don’t really know what else I could do for Alfred. I watered it, I kept it in and out of
sunlight, cut off its dead leaves, changed its pebbles, added more pebbles, changed
its soil, changed its pot, fed it fancy plant food that cost a small
fortune. So, after so many attempts you
would think that it came back to life and flourished like there’s no
tomorrow. But no, it became weaker and
weaker and now it looks deader than ever.
The sad thing is that a so-called plant expert at Home Depot told me
once that it’s virtually impossible to kill a bamboo. Well, I think that I managed the unmanageable
and killed mine. I just don’t think that
potted plants agree with me. C’est la
vie… you can’t win’em all. And now I
have to let it go!
So,
in Alfred’s loving memory, I decided to make a vegetarian stew and share it
with you and all of you, who experienced difficulties raising potted
plants. I hope someone can understand my
frustration. The Rice and Vegetable Stew is my all-time favorite vegetarian dish
that my Grandma Vicki makes. This is one
of those simple and super easy things to make. The funny thing about this recipe is that it
calls for fresh tomatoes and I have to tell you that I don’t like raw tomatoes
at all. I love ketchup (in fact, I could
eat tons of ketchup, and as a child I would add extra ketchup to pizza,
spaghetti and anything that I thought would need ketchup), tomato paste, tomato
sauce, canned tomatoes, and even tomato juice, but don’t give me fresh tomatoes. I can’t explain why. Sometimes I feel like celebrity chef Scott
Conant, who can’t stand raw onions. If
you happen to compete on Chopped and
he’s one of the judges, don’t give him raw onions – he’ll chop you!
My
relationship with fresh tomatoes is very limited and when I say limited, I mean
it; I don’t even get near them. On the
other hand, Adrian loves tomatoes and sometimes I even forget to buy his San
Marzano tomatoes that he loves so much.
But things change when I buy fresh tomatoes for this vegetable
stew. Then, I look for the best tomatoes
out there. I look at their color, their
skin, their firmness, and I squeeze them gently to get an idea of how juicy
they really are. By the way, this is how
you have to buy your tomatoes for this recipe.
Make sure they’re juicy!
What
I like most about this stew is how well the flavors blend and work together. The sweetness of the pepper and the onions
together with the sourness and juiciness of the tomatoes form a welcoming base
for the rice, which adds body and texture to the mixture. In the end, you’ll get the perfect balance of
savory and sweet, and you’ll capture tasty bright flavors in a simple yet bold
and brilliant dish.
Ghiveci – Rice and Vegetable Stew
By
Simply Romanesco inspired by my Grandma Vicki
Serves:
4 servings
Ingredients:
·
Vegetable oil
·
2 medium onions, julienned
·
1 large yellow pepper, chopped
·
5 medium tomatoes
·
Salt
·
1 ½ –
2 Tablespoons sugar
·
½ cup white rice
Instructions:
Bring
water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
Add the tomatoes and leave them in boiling water for a couple of minutes
until the skin becomes soft. Take the
tomatoes out, peel them and chop them.
Set them aside.
In a
medium pan, heat up 4 Tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Add the onions and season with salt. Cook the onions until translucent, about 7-8
minutes. Add the yellow pepper and stir. Cook together with the onions, about 7-8
minutes. Add the tomatoes and their
juices. Season with more salt and stir
well. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and add the sugar. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until the liquid has
reduced and the stew has thickened.
Season with more salt and sugar to taste to obtain a perfect balance
between sweet and sour.
While
the vegetables cook down, in a medium saucepan, heat up 2 Tablespoons of oil
over high heat. Add the rice and 2 cups
of water. Season with salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the water is
absorbed and the rice is cooked. When
the rice is cooked, cover with a lid for 5 minutes.
Add
the rice to the vegetable stew and stir well over low heat and cook together
for 5 minutes. Season to taste. Serve with egg omelette.
No comments:
Post a Comment