Breakfast burrito

Having time to cook a proper breakfast is one of the luxuries of working from home, although not one I take advantage of very often, if I'm honest. This, despite its name, is much more likely to appear on my plate at lunch, particularly on a day when I’ve had a productive morning and thus feel justified in spending a few extra minutes preparing a meal that will fuel an (I hope) equally productive afternoon.

Second home

I’m back in England, for the first time in nearly two years. It’s amazing to me that I spent the better part of ten years of my life living here, and now nineteen months have flown by since my last visit—just a couple of weeks before I started this blog, in fact. My travel plans escaped unscathed from Volcanageddon, or whatever we’re calling it, although it was touch and go for a bit there, and I arrived yesterday morning, right on schedule. I spent about 24 hours in London, getting acclimated, going to meetings, and eating quite possibly the best Mexican meal (including margaritas) I’ve ever had. And tonight I’ve returned to my old stomping ground: Oxford. I’ll be spending most of the next three days inside a conference room, but I plan to escape from time to time and revisit some of my favorite haunts—yes, of course they all sell food, why do you ask?—and catch up with some friends. You can only get away with that kind of thing in a visit to a place you’ve called home, and I plan to make the most of the opportunity.

Foolish consistency

*
Having just finished writing about how a dictatorial approach to cooking misses the point, I’m now going to contradict myself and talk about having a meal schedule.

(I like to tell myself that it’s the paradoxes in people that make them interesting. I find people who are absolutely consistent all the time are often not very interesting and sometimes a little bit scary.)

I’ve previously alluded to the fact that the meal regimen in my house growing up was, um, a little bit rigid, and that this has made its mark on me, although I’ve tried to broaden my horizons. I actually think it’s useful to have a rough framework for eating certain things on certain nights; it helps me with meal planning because I’m not starting from absolute zero on coming up with ideas. (Although I realize that other people, including some who grew up in the same house as I did, might find this whole concept too constraining.)

So what does that mean in practical terms? What happens if, say, you go away for the weekend unexpectedly? Well, if you’re me, it means you come home to a hefty piece of steak in your fridge that needs to be used up pronto. That’s because Saturday night, in my family, is Steak Night—one in-law tradition that DP has adopted enthusiastically.

I don’t tend to mess with Steak Night too much, because a) it’s tradition (cue “Fiddler on the Roof” music) and b) I feel a good steak, properly cooked, doesn’t need much embellishment. But, just as it feels odd to have anything else on Steak Night, so does it feel odd to have Steak Night on any night other than Saturday. The upside to that constraint is that it provides scope to do something a bit different with the same old main ingredient when you get it outside its assigned spot on the rota.

Steak Fajitas
Last time I made this, I realized that it’s like a Mexican stir-fry—once you get everything sliced and assembled, it all comes together very quickly.

2 Tbsp cooking oil of your choice (I use light olive oil)
1 large or 2 small onions, sliced
1 large red pepper/capsicum, sliced
1 lb/450 g rump steak, cut crosswise in half-inch/1 cm slices**
Paprika
Ground cumin

Heat a large grill pan, skillet, wok, sauté pan or similar until very hot. Add oil, then vegetables. Cook, stirring constantly, until they begin to soften (3-5 minutes). Add steak and continue stirring until the steak is cooked to your liking (medium rare: another 3-5 minutes). Season to taste with paprika and ground cumin. Serve immediately, either bringing the loudly sizzling pan to the table (in the manner of Mexican restaurants everywhere), or transferring meat and veg to a warmed bowl, so that everyone can construct their own fajitas.

To serve***
Warmed tortillas (estimate two per person, plus a couple extra)
At least 1 cup grated cheese (I use sharp cheddar)
Salsa
Guacamole
Cut limes, for squeezing over

Place a reasonable amount of the fajita mixture, enhanced by some or all of the listed condiments, in the middle of a tortilla. Fold over in the manner of a burrito, and eat with your hands. No matter what I do, mine always leak, but I don’t care.

Serves 4.

* I forgot to take a picture of the finished product before we ate it all, so here’s a completely random picture of an echidna (the Australian porcupine/hedgehog) instead.
** This can easily be made veggie, either by just leaving out the steak or substituting tofu, tempeh, portobello mushrooms, etc.
*** This list traditionally includes sour cream, but I usually ignore that. Just FYI.

Taste sensations

Today was a busy day. In the morning, I trekked up to Downer on the bus to meet Zoe, one of my Canberra blogging buddies, and her women’s group. Zoe told me about the group a while ago, and I had been wanting to check it out. Of course the reason I finally got off my butt and went was food-related: Zoe was on the schedule to give a demonstration of Asian cooking, featuring lots of authentic ingredients from Canberra’s Asian grocery stores.

I had a great time: met lots of interesting, friendly people; poked, sniffed, and tasted a variety of things I’d never come in close contact with before; learned some really useful information about how various ingredients should be used and where to get them; and, best of all, got to sample three fantastic dishes that Zoe prepared as part of the demonstration. They were really good: complex, flavorful, and authentically Asian tasting. I would have paid good money to eat any of them in a restaurant.

After an enjoyable and instructive morning, I headed back into the city centre to do a slew of errands before heading to the library to get some work done. I had already planned to grab some lunch at a Mexican place I had noticed recently that was conveniently located on my travels. I don’t get much Mexican these days unless I make it myself, and I had high hopes that this place might help satisfy my perpetual cravings.

Alas, it was not to be. It wasn’t bad; it was just that Zoe had set the bar so high already, with her portable gas ring and wok. She had demonstrated how, with good ingredients and a little care, it’s fast and easy to make seriously delicious food. And although my Mexican lunch was fast and easy, it wasn’t particularly delicious. So, after trying out a few of Zoe’s Asian techniques for tonight’s dinner, I’ll probably have to make a batch of this tomorrow, because now my Mexican cravings are stronger than ever.

All Season Salsa
I adapted this recipe from one in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to increase quantities and to use canned tomatoes, because sometimes you really need salsa when you can’t get a decent tomato anywhere and all the readily available jarred salsa is execrable (yeah, I’m looking at you, English supermarkets).

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small red chili pepper, halved and seeded*
10-12 sprigs cilantro/coriander
2 14oz/400g cans whole tomatoes, drained
Juice of 2 limes
Salt to taste

Put the first four ingredients in a food processor and pulse to chop finely. (You could also chop by hand if you’re so inclined.) Add the tomatoes and lime juice and pulse again. Taste and salt accordingly. Serve with tortilla chips, or any and all Mexican meals of your choice. (Also yummy with eggs at breakfast.)

* I use one small, very hot chili, which makes this big batch flavorful enough for me without inciting the dreaded “Too spicy!” reaction from Miss B. Can be adjusted according to your taste/spice tolerance.

Progress report

Recent activities have reminded me to post a brief update on the burning questions asked in my first post:

1. Season Five of The Office? Check. Just finished watching the 10/23 episode on my laptop.
2. Drama-free ice hockey? I'm still trying to find the rink. (Lack of transport and temps in the 70s/20s have knocked this item down the priority list.)
3. Playgroup sans LotF atmosphere? Research continues. (See lack of transport, above; at the moment it appears that all the other people who go to playgroups live somewhere else, far, far away.)
4. Secure source of avocadoes? Check: local supermarket. Grown in Australia, even. I made my second batch of guacamole for dinner (quesadillas) last night. I'm thinking about starting to hunt around for tomatillos, but I don't want to get cocky. Maybe I should get back to figuring out where the ice rink is instead.