I would guess that I made enough food for three people. Of course, I am left with 1 box of tofu, some spices, two bouillon cubes, not much more (eggs & butter & bread, but those I’ll use in the mornings). So hooray for me! I’m writing down exactly how I did it, but some of this is just me thinking, “Oh, forgot this!” For example, you should probably add the garlic with the onion for the pilaf, rather than after the water boils, and might want to use more chicken if you are actually trying to make this for a group. (I have no clue why I’ve taken to writing detailed recipes of what I have for dinner, but, well, so it goes.)

Rice Pilaf à la +justin
Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice (I used brown; white is fine; use the appropriate amount of water + a bit more, and the cook time is a little longer than expected)
• 1/2 white onion, chopped small
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed, chopped finely, or mashed (I used a fork)
• 1 1/4 chicken bouillon cubes (broth or stock would be better, but I can’t find canned broth here)
• Curry Powder, approximately 2 tsp
• Salt to taste (NOTE: you don’t need salt if you’re using bouillon cubes! they’re more than half salt, usually!)
• A little bit of butter (and a few teaspoons of olive oil)
• Frozen (or canned, I suppose) green peas, maybe 1/4 cup
• Dried apricots, quartered (any kind, really: I prefer the tart, sun-dried, wrinklier orange kind, sometimes referred to as California; there are also “turkish” apricots, which are brown because they don’t have sulfur added, and Mediterranean apricots, which are orange but artificially dried and sweet), maybe 8
• Raw almonds, maybe 1/8 cup

Okay, right. Cook the onion in a little bit of olive oil, for maybe 4 minutes, and then add the spices. After a minute, add a little more oil and then the rice, stir to coat. Add the water and bouillon cube, and stir occasionally until it dissolves. Add the garlic and the sun-dried tomato. Cover, and don’t open or stir until close to the end. Turn the heat to very-low but not lowest, or almost-lowest if you’re using an electric range.

When the time is almost up, add the peas, apricots, almonds, and a small pat of butter. Re-cover immediately without stirring, and wait until the water is fully absorbed. Stir everything up, turn off the heat, and leave for a few more minutes. Then serve.

With, optionally,
Chicken-eggplant stir fry
Ingredients:

• 1 breast chicken, cubed
• 1 small eggplant, cubed
• 1/2 onion (see: above!), chopped into small pieces
• a few mushrooms, preferrably portabello or white button, but any will do, sliced or chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• Olive oil as needed (note: the eggplant necessitates more than you might normally use, or such has been my experience!)
• Crushed red peppers, approximately 1 tsp, but to taste
• Curry powder, approximately 1 tbsp
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in the pan, and cook the onions at a low heat while chopping up everything else. After the onions are soft, add a bit of olive oil, and add the eggplant and garlic. Stir to coat. Stir occasionally for the next five minutes or so, and then add the chicken. Add olive oil as needed (see: when things start to stick; the eggplant absorbs a lot of olive oil) — but don’t overdo it. A little at a time.

When the chicken has begun to turn white, add the spices, and stir them in. When the chicken seems close to cooked, add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are coated in spices and cooked, and the chicken is cooked through, it’s done. The mushrooms will provide some juice, but if you want a sauce, add some soy sauce near the end, I guess. It’s spicy enough on its own.

Serve everything together, I suppose. Drink a white wine with it, to offset the spicy. I drank a Familia Zuccardi Santa Julia Tardío 2007, which was really refreshingly fruity and delicious. I would totally recommend it. (It’s a bit pricey for Argentine wines; I was feeling adventurous, and not spending much on food [I just bought the onion and eggplant] since I was using things I already had.)

Aye, aye! This entry is silly.