The only trouble, of course, is that my cooking skills, vestigial even in the best of times, and under merciless assault from years of eating out late-night after theater fun, had essentially withered away. I can order from a menu, of course, but that skill is not of much use when I'm the one who has to take the order. I secretly admired people - say, independent 20-year-olds - who weren't chained to a restaurant and could cook for themselves. Shouldn't I be able to do the same? So, I began exercising the one or two remaining neurons where those cooking skills were stored. I decided to prepare: stir fry.
There were examples to guide my choices.....
Of course, Steve has his brand of stir fry, served at DMTC cast parties, but I find it a bit salty (I think it's the soy sauce - probably bad for the blood pressure). Anyway, by the time I make my laggard arrival at most cast parties, the stir fry is seriously picked-over of the good stuff (like mushrooms) and thus too-heavily biased towards rice, broccoli, and meat chunks for my taste. I wanted something different; maybe something more vegetably.
When I visited Andrew in Australia in 2006, I discovered an entire upside down world where eating choices were - different. Andrew preferred a diet that seemed to consist mostly of tomatoes and capsicums (bell peppers). When he wasn't eating capsicum-flavored tomatoes, he was eating tomato-flavored capsicums. At first, I wondered how the human animal could survive such a diet. But within a week, I had made the transition too, and learned that capsicums and tomatoes make a great team.
Recent forays into Mongolian stir fry restaurants suggested a general strategy of just heaping a whole bunch of good vegetably stuff into the teflon-coated frying pan, heating it up, and flailing away with a spatula. Even I could do that.
And last week, I bought a (pricey) bag of T.G.I.F. Firecracker Sesame Chicken Stir Fry and experimented with that. They used a kind of lo mein noodle for their starch instead of rice, and I thought that was a good idea. I liked their sauce too.
So, somewhat armed with examples, I went to Safeway and shopped for vegetables. I forgot to buy tomatoes or chicken chunks or noodles, but I bought a pretty little package of (Canadian) bell peppers (two green, one red, and one yellow). I also bought mushrooms.
Then I let everything sit in the refrigerator for four or five days. Just 'cause.
Last night, after body-slamming aerobics (particularly hard after Music Man tech week and suffering through a cold), it was time to prepare stir fry!
I didn't have noodles, but I did have some Top Ramen packets (shades of college days!) I didn't know how old the packets were: 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? As long as I could remember, these same Top Ramen packets have been in this same kitchen drawer. And they do tend to store well. These were probably left behind by Egyptian priests to nourish King Tutankhamen on his journey through the underworld. So I boiled up a Cajun Chicken Top Ramen packet, but used only a fraction of the flavor packet, since that's where they keep the salt and the MSG. I didn't have chicken chunks, but I did have some smoked turkey breast - not quite the same, but close enough, so I cut that up. I found some rather-mature carrots in the refrigerator's vegetable bin - a little hairy with roots, but what the heck. I had no spices that I knew of (terra incognita, that pantry), but I found a little bit of A-1 Steak Sauce, and that seemed good enough as a flavoring.
So, I added the mushrooms to the mix, plus a green and yellow capsicum, and whomped up stir fry. Plus some boiled corn on the side, for variety.
Result: somewhat bland, but filling, and probably reasonably healthy. And having made this first step, I can start making more steps, on my 12-step cooking skill recovery plan. Because all journeys start with a single first step.....
Here is an interesting discussion on Wikipedia regarding bell pepper nomenclature:
Bell pepper is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, green and orange. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as "sweet peppers". Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Pepper seeds were later carried to Spain in 1493 and from there spread to other European and Asian countries. Today, Mexico remains one of the major pepper producers in the world.
...The term "bell pepper" is the American name for some vegetables of the Capsicum annuum species of plants. The misleading name "pepper" (pimiento in Spanish) was given by Christopher Columbus upon bringing the plant back to Europe. At that time peppercorns, the fruit of Piper nigrum, an unrelated plant, were a highly prized condiment.
The term "bell pepper" or "pepper" or "capsicum" is often used for any of the large bell shaped capsicum vegtables, regardless of their color. In British English, the fruit is simply referred to as a "pepper", whereas in many Commonwealth of Nations countries, such as Australia, India, Malaysia and New Zealand, they are called "capsicum". Across Europe, the term "paprika", which has its roots in the word for pepper, is used—sometimes referred to by their color (e.g., "groene paprika", "gele paprika", in Dutch, which are green and yellow, respectively). Paprika also refers to the powdered spice made from the same fruit. In France it is called "poivron", with the same root as "poivre" (meaning "pepper"), or "piment. " In Japan, the word ピーマン ("pîman, " from the French) refers only to green bell peppers, whereas パプリカ ("papurika, " from paprika) refers to bell peppers of other colors. In the United States and Canada, the fruit is often referred to simply as a "pepper" or referred to by color (e. g. "red pepper", "green pepper"), although the more specific term "bell pepper" is understood in most regions. In parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, the fruit is called a "mango".[where?] Bell peppers are botanically fruits, but are generally considered in culinary contexts to be vegetables.
In Russia it is commonly called болгарский перец (bolgarskiy perets), meaning Bulgarian pepper. In Denmark the bell pepper is referred to as "peberfrugt", meaning pepper-fruit. In the rest of Scandinavia it is known as "paprika".
In Brazil it's commonly called Pimentão, meaning Big pepper. It's widely used in a variety of dishes, like pasta, rice and other dishes from Cuisine of Brazil.
In Argentina it's called "Morrón", green and red bell peppers are usually found in small grocery stores, the yellow ones tend to be in the supermarket. Grilled, they may form part of the traditional barbecue of this country, called "Asado" (Castilian Spanish for 'grilled').
In Nepal it's called "bhede khursani". It is eaten with fried noodles, and is cooked and eaten with any vegetable, but bhede khursani is never eaten raw.
In Sri Lanka it is called "Maalu Miris" in Sinhalese language and used in "curries" as a vegetable. "Miris" is Chilli, the hotter variety which is used as a hot spice, and "Maalu" means Vegetable, hence "Maalu Miris" indicates the less spicy version, which is suitable for cooking as a vegetable, instead of using as a spice. With the similar meaning, bell pepper is called "kaRi miLakaay" (கறிமிளகாய்) in Tamil language.
In Egypt it is commonly called "filfil akhdar", where "filfil" means pepper and "akhdar" means green. It is eaten as a raw snack, in salads, in various soups and stews, and is also cooked stuffed with a rice and beef filling.
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