Pasta with creamed corn

In some parts of the country, fresh sweet corn is already available. Not quite here in Minnesota, but it’s close. This very easy recipe would be fine in the middle of winter with frozen corn, but if you can get fresh corn, it’s a nice change from corn on the cob - not that there are many foods better than that. The amounts indicated are for a pound of pasta. I used rotini, but if one likes the symmetry or the theme of small corn kernels, one could use orzo or ditalini. 

Fresh corn, 3 ears, kernels removed

One yellow bell pepper, cut roughly the size of corn kernels

Garlic, two cloves, crushed

White pepper

Light cream, 2 cups

Vermouth or white wine

Scallions, minced

Minced pimientos, I small jar, drained

Salt

Butter, 1-2 Tbs

Asiago cheese, grated, a cup or more

Pasta

Reserve one cup of the corn kernels and a cup or less of the yellow bell pepper, depending on the size. Place the remaining corn and bell pepper in a saucepan, along with the light cream, garlic, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into a blender. Puree. Return to the saucepan and add the pimientos, scallions, and vermouth or white wine. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for a few minutes to thicken slightly. Add some salt. In a separate skillet, melt the butter and quickly saute the reserved corn kernels and the reserved pieces of yellow bell pepper until a bit charred.

In the meantime, cook the pasta. Drain and return to the pot. Add the creamed corn mixture. Plate and add the sauteed corn and bell pepper, finishing with the cheese. 

Scallops on potato "risotto"

This is a variation of a long-lost recipe wherein the potatoes were referred to as “potato risotto”. I made it and other variations for the first time probably twenty years ago because the faux risotto is really quite good, and it takes to seafood like a duck to water or Chianti to pizza or some similar analogy. When I made it recently with the scallops I used some blood orange juice I’d had frozen since last winter, blood oranges being available in the winter months here. As I type this, we in the Twin Cities are bracing for a run of 90+ degree temperatures, so summer is definitely making its presence known. Ordinary oranges are likely to be the only type of oranges available. If, however, you use ordinary paprika instead of smoked paprika, much of the appeal of the dish will be lost.

Russet potatoes, 2, peeled and diced

Clam, shrimp, or other seafood broth, or chicken broth, 2 cup

Dry vermouth or white wine, 1/4 cup

Garlic cloves, 2, minced

Pimientos, 1 small jar minced

White pepper

Butter, 2-3 Tbs

Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago cheese, 1/2 cup, grated

Salt

Sea scallops, 8 (for 2 servings)

Smoked paprika, 2 Tbs

White pepper

Butter, 2 Tbs

Olive or canola oil, 2 Tbs

Blood orange juice or regular orange juice, 1/2 cup

Lemon or tangerine vodka, 1/2 cup

Heavy cream, 1/4-1/2 cup

Salt if necessary

Place the diced potatoes, the broth, vermouth, and garlic in a large skillet and boil under  the liquid is almost gone and the potatoes are soft but not disintegrating. Add the remaining five ingredients and set aside.

Make sure the scallops are dry. Mix the smoked paprika and white pepper, spread on a plate, and dip the tops and bottoms of the scallops in the mixture, pressing a bit to make sure it adheres. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet over medium high heat, and saute the scallops, about a minute or so on each side, taking great care not to overcook them.

Place the re-heated potato mixture on serving plates, with the scallops on top. 

In the same skillet in which the scallops were cooked, toss in the orange juice and the vodka and boil on high for a minute. Remove from the heat and add the cream and salt. Pour the sauce over the scallops and potatoes. Scatter some chives or scallions.

Meat loaf masquerading as Chinese food

It occurred to me that, among the fifty billion versions of meat loaf I’ve made over the past four decades, I probably haven’t made one with Chinese flavorings. Mexican, Middle Eastern, German, etc. Never, loosely construed, Chinese. Here it is. 

Dried mushrooms such as shiitakes, a small handful

Rice wine or dry sherry

Ground beef and ground pork, in a 2:1 ratio (or not)

Jalapenos, 3-4 seeded and deveined

Garlic, 3 cloves

Ginger, a slice

Egg, 1

Soy sauce, 3 Tbs

Black bean garlic sauce, 3 tbs

Onion, about 1 cup, minced

Bread slice, 1

Milk, 1/2 cup

Hoisin sauce

Cilantro, minced

Thick noodles

Hoisin sauce

Scallions

Sesame oil

Cover the mushrooms with the rice wine or dry sherry and allow to rehydrate for a couple of hours. Mince.

Soak the bread in the milk for ten minutes or so.

Place the meats and the next seven ingredients in a processor and mince. Squeeze some of the milk out of the bread and add the bread to the processor and mince again.

Transfer to a bowl and mix in the mushrooms. Now pack it all into a loaf pan, spread some hoisin sauce on top, and cook for around an hour at 350 degrees.

The noodles you see in the photo are dried Chinese noodles (actually Taiwanese, depending on your position regarding that dispute). They have a meaty taste which goes well with . . . meat. I added hoisin, scallions, and sesame oil after cooking and draining. Cilantro is spread about. If the meat loaf is a bit too dry for your liking, spread some more hoisin over it after plating.

Pasta with brie and mushrooms

I had some left-over brie and I felt like pasta - felt like eating pasta; I myself didn’t feel “like” pasta. I then remembered a recipe from Cooking Light a couple of years ago, which involved brie and pasta, so I pulled out that issue. This isn’t the same recipe, as I’ve made some significant alterations, but credit where credit is due: I got the idea from that Cooking Light recipe. This is very creamy-tasting in spite of the use of skim milk instead of cream. It’s also, as can be seen, very, very easy. Fresh mushrooms can, of course, be substituted for the shiitakes. 

Tubular pasta (so the sauce can get inside), 8 oz

Skim milk, 2 cups

Flour, 3 Tbs

Salt, 1 tsp

White pepper, several grinds

Ripe brie, 6 oz, cut into small pieces

Asiago, 1/2 c, grated

Olive oil, 1 Tbs

Butter, 1 Tbs

Dried shiitakes, several. sliced

Scallions, 5 or 6, sliced

Truffle oil

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

While this is occurring, place 1/2 cup of the milk in a saucepan with the flour and heat over medium heat, stirring, until it’s thoroughly mixed. Now gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring, until it thickens. Add the salt and pepper. 

Add the cheeses to the sauce and melt.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan and saute the mushrooms.

Drain the pasta and return to the pot, adding the sauce, and mix. Distribute to serving plates and put the mushrooms on top. Drizzle some truffle oil on top of the whole thing.

Crab, potatoes, prosciutto, and chive oil

  This recipe involves very few ingredients, and by far the most important of which is the crab meat. Ideally, one should get Dungeness crab meat, but in this part of the country it isn’t widely available (Coastal Seafoods in Minneapolis and St Paul usually has it, cooked, extracted, and frozen in one pound containers). Failing that, buy the most expensive you can find. Do not - repeat, do not - use those small cans of alleged crab meat found next to the minced clams and tuna. That stuff has no taste. 

Dungeness crab or blue crab meat, 1 lb.

Potatoes, 3 or 4 depending on the size

Salt and ground pepper

Olive oil

Prosciutto, 4 to 6 oz., cut in small pieces

Chives, a “bunch”, sliced

Extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup

Salt and ground white pepper

Minced pimientos

Place the chives and the half cup of extra virgin olive oil in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour the contents into a sieve over a bowl. Press down on the solids. Discard the solids and keep the clear green liquid. You now have chive oil. Add a bit of salt and some ground white pepper.

Peel the potatoes, cut in half (to speed the cooking process), and boil in salted water. Drain, and when they’re cool, slice 1/4” thick. Brush both sides of the slices with oil - olive, canola, or vegetable. Salt and pepper one side and place on a cookie sheet in one layer. Heat the oven to 425 degrees and bake for ten minutes or so, long enough to begin to brown.

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and cook the prosciutto pieces until just barely crisp. 

Heat the crab meat in a microwave until just warm. It’s already cooked, you know. You just want to take the chill off in case it’s been in the refrigerator.

Place some potato slices on each plate (this recipe is for three or four servings), then some crab on top, then some prosciutto, and finally drizzle some chive oil over the whole thing, garnished with minced pimiento.

Thai shrimp and noodles

   Here’s an ostensibly Thai preparation that I put together one night because I didn’t want to go the grocery store and because I had all the ingredients on hand. This kind of Thai recipe is very commonplace, but I did two things that make it ever so slightly different. I used a can of mango nectar which I reduced by about half to intensify its fruitiness, and I tossed in some corn. 

   The green curry paste can be found in many grocery stores in small jars, along with red and yellow. One tablespoon is enough to give this just a bit of a kick, but it’s by no means incendiary. Do not confuse Thai curry paste with Indian curry powder. Big difference, not that the latter would make a terrible dish here by any means.

   The lemongrass is best found in Asian markets. I’ve seen it available in ordinary grocery stores in those little clear plastic containers alongside fresh herbs such as basil, thyme, and sage. The typical price for all of these things is about $3, which is absurd for the two sticks of lemongrass that you get. Pay it if you like. An alternative is to simply squeeze a tablespoon or two of fresh lemon or lime juice into the finished dish.

   I used dried Japanese spinach noodles because they’re a pale green, and they appealed to my sense of aesthetics. Any spinach taste is quite subtle. Use another noodle if you like, and, of course, jasmine rice would be good, too.

   

Canola oil, 1 Tbs

Garlic, 1 or 2 cloves, minced

Ginger, 2 tsp, minced

Green curry paste, 1 Tbs, more or less depending on your heat tolerance

Coconut milk, 1 13.6 oz can

Mango nectar, 1 11.3 oz can

White pepper, several grinds

Salt, 1 tsp

Lemongrass, 1 4” or 5” inch length, split

Bamboo shoots, sliced, half of one small can

Corn, 1 cup

Basil, several leaves

Shrimp, 8 oz, shelled and deveined

Scallions, 3 or 4, sliced

Noodles, 4 or 5 oz

Reduce the mango nectar over high heat until it’s about half its original amount.

Cook the noodles according to package instructions.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Sauté the garlic and ginger for a minute or so, taking care not to burn the garlic. Now put in the curry paste and continue sautéeing for another minute. Pour in the coconut milk and reduced mango nectar. Add the white pepper and salt, the lemongrass, the bamboo shoots, the corn, and a few torn basil leaves. Turn down the heat and simmer for five or ten minutes. Now add the shrimp and cook for ten minutes. Add the sliced scallions and serve atop the noodles.

Butternut squash pasta with walnut sauce

   I encountered some butternut pasta the other day - dried, not fresh - and its yellow color was appealing. Of course, pastas made with various vegetables have, at best, only a subtle hint of those vegetables. One isn’t going to taste tomato pasta and say, “Damn! San Marzano tomatoes picked in mid-August from the leeward side of the Valle del Sarno, southeast corner!” Still, knowing this, I purchased it and now having consumed it, can confirm that the squash flavor is indeed subtle. But since its color didn’t fade at all, it was still aesthetically pleasing on the plate. If you can’t find dried butternut pasta, cook some winter squash and puree it along with the other sauce ingredients.

   I wanted a smooth sauce but I also knew mushrooms would pair nicely with the sauce I had in mind, so I simply ground some dried shiitakes. Just put several of them in a coffee grinder and grind as you would coffee beans. One doesn’t necessarily want coffee flavoring in this sauce, so ideally you have a grinder dedicated to spices and such. If not, clean your coffee grinder thoroughly.

   I also wanted a relatively light sauce; i.e., no butter and no heavy cream. So I used skim milk (although I indicate below that cream can be used), and some of the pasta water to thin the sauce.

   

Butternut squash pasta, 1 lb

Dried mushrooms, ground

Walnuts, 1/2 cup, toasted

Bread, a couple of slices, crusts removed, torn into pieces

Cream or milk, 1/2 cup

Shallot, 1 large, minced

Garlic, 1-2 cloves, minced

Salt and pepper

Fresh basil, several leaves

Pasta cooking water

Walnut oil on the cooked pasta

A small jar of minced pimientos

Parsley

Place the ground mushrooms and the remaining sauce ingredients in a food processor and puree. Remove to a saucepan, heat and keep warm.

In the meantime, you will have cooked the pasta, but before you drain it, scoop a half cup or possibly more of the cooking water into the sauce, enough to make a good consistency which is neither too thick nor too thin. This might be called "The Goldilocks Principle".

After you drain the pasta, mix in a couple of tablespoons of walnut oil. Olive oil can substitute. Put the pasta on the plates, the sauce atop, with minced pimientos and parsley as garnish. And there you have it.

Scallops with pureed potatoes and green pea cakes

  Some may have seen my lecture on scallops elsewhere on this blog, but here it is again: Scallops have been my favorite edible aquatic creatures for as long as I can remember .  . . (pause for effect) . . . provided they are good scallops in the first place and provided they aren’t overcooked and transmogrified into hockey pucks. Far, far better to undercook scallops than to overcook them, particularly since undercooked, or for that matter, uncooked scallops can be very good. Another personal preference: Big, fat sea scallops are better than small bay scallops or calico scallops which frequently masquerade as bay scallops. Yet another qualification: Buy only dry scallops, not wet. The latter have been marinating in a phosphate preservative which causes the scallop to absorb moisture which adds to the weight (so you’re paying for the preservative) and makes it almost impossible to brown the scallop. 

   All right, enough of the prefatory information. This recipe will be good without the truffle oil and truffle salt, but not as good. I don’t care that some “foodies” have alleged overuse of truffle oil, claiming that it’s faddish. I don’t put it on my breakfast cereal; in fact, I’m quite selective in its use. Leaving aside the fact that most truffle oil on the market isn’t actually made with real truffles - it’s made with truffle “flavoring” - it’s actually very good in some preparations, and its aroma certainly bears a similarity to the real thing. The truffle salt is icing on the cake here. 

   The dish is improved by pureeing the potatoes, not just by mashing them. Use a ricer for this purpose as well as large amounts of butter and cream. Eat less the next day. Don’t ever put cooked potatoes in a food processor unless you want something with the consistency of glue on the plate. 

   The green pea cakes are a nice accompaniment. I’ve lifted it from a cookbook by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Simple Cuisine (Prentice-Hall Press, 1990). 

Sea scallops, 12 oz or so for two people

Smoked paprika

Flour

Salt

White pepper

Butter

Canola or other vegetable oil

Mashed (pureed) potatoes

Prodigious amounts of butter and heavy cream

Frozen green peas, 1 1/2 cups, thawed

1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 Tbs flour

5 Tbs butter

Salt and pepper

Dried chervil, 1 tsp (optional)

Truffle oil

Truffle salt

Cook red, low-starch potatoes or a combination of low-starch and baking potatoes. Drain. When it’s cool, run them through a ricer. Return to a pan and add a lot of butter and cream, along with some salt and pepper. Keep this warm. 

Combine the peas, egg, egg yolk, cream, and flour in a food processor and process until smooth. Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter, add to the pea mixture, and process, adding salt and pepper. If you have some dried chervil, add a teaspoon to the mixture.  Over medium heat, melt the other 2 tablespoons of butter in a non-stick pan, or use non-stick spray. Drop about 2 tablespoons of pea mixture into the pan and cook until the  pea cakes are browning around the edges and firming up enough to flip them without destroying them. Brown the other side. Keep warm until time to serve the dish.

Remove the small muscle sometimes found on the sides of sea scallops. It’s whiter in color than the pearl color of the scallop. Combine some flour with the smoked paprika and add some white pepper. Make sure the scallops are dry. Press the tops and bottoms of the scallops into the flour mixture. Heat the butter and oil over medium high heat and add the scallops. Depending on their size and the heat of the pan, it should take no more than a minute or, at most, two minutes per side. I’ve already emphasized the importance of not overcooking them.

Put the pureed potatoes on the plates with the scallops on top. If there is any butter/oil remaining in the pan, drizzle it over the scallops. Place one or two pea cakes alongside. Now drizzle a bit of truffle oil on the scallops and potatoes and finish with some truffle salt. 

Smoked salmon and wild rice

  What you want here is hot-smoked salmon, not cold-smoked. The former comes in the form of recognizable salmon fillets, sometimes with flavorings such as peppercorns or “Cajun” spices. The latter is thinly sliced, such as would go on a bagel with a schmear (that’s New Yorkese for cream cheese). This is rather important because cold-smoked salmon is just too delicate for this preparation.

  A second note about ingredients involves the wild rice. Some wild rice is grown in California. I’ve tried it and found it inferior to Minnesota wild rice. There are subcategories of the latter such as Chippewa/Ojibwe hand-harvested rice, commercially grown paddy rice, and others. Hand-harvested is the best and most expensive, but commercially grown will suffice in this recipe.

Hot smoked salmon, skinned, about 10 oz for two servings, 

Olive oil

Bacon, thick-cut lean applewood or hickory smoked, six slices, chopped

Chicken broth, 2-3 cups

Carrot, 1, quarter-inch slices

Potato, 1 medium sized red, half-inch pieces

Garlic, 1 clove, minced

Onion, 1, chopped

Tomato paste, 2 Tbs

Bay leaf, 1

Dried thyme, 1/2 - 1 tsp

Wild rice, 1/2 - 3/4 cup
Scallions for garnish

Cook the bacon in a skillet. Remove the pieces and reserve, leaving the fat behind. Put the chicken broth in the skillet and add the following seven ingredients. Bring to a boil and add the wild rice. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. It will typically take 45 minutes to an hour for the rice to be done. The individual grains should have begun to split, and the will be tender but still have some bite. When this occurs, turn off the heat but keep the lid on while you prepare the salmon.

The preparation of the salmon is very simple. It’s already cooked, you know, so all you want to do is heat it. In, preferably, a non-stick pan, heat the olive oil on medium high and quickly sear the salmon on both sides.

Turn the wild rice mixture onto serving plates and place a salmon piece atop each, with a scattering of scallions.

Rigatoni with sausage, chard, and red bell pepper sauce

   I think what makes this preparation pretty good is the red bell pepper sauce. There is no cream in it, yet it tastes rich. The sausage already contains spices, but add basil or fennel or whatever you like if you prefer. To me, it isn’t necessary, though. Don’t be tempted to use purchased roasted red bell peppers in a jar. While these are quite good for some uses, you would lose the significant additional flavor obtained in this recipe with the shallots and garlic.

Rigatoni or other tubular pasta, 1 lb

Olive oil + some on drained pasta

Italian sausage, 1 lb., either mild or spicy

Swiss chard, a bunch, leaves trimmed and chopped 

Red chile flakes (optional)

Pine nuts or almonds, 1/4 cup, toasted

For the red bell pepper sauce: 

2 red bell peppers

2-3 Tbs olive oil

2 garlic cloves

2 shallots

around 12 oz chicken broth

Remove the stem, seeds, and veins from the peppers and chop.

Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the peppers, shallots, and garlic and cook over low heat for several minutes. Now add the broth and continue simmering for another 20 minutes or so. Put the mixture into a food processor and puree. Return to the pan, add salt and pepper, and keep warm at a simmer. If it gets too thick, add some more chicken broth.

If the sausage is in casings, remove the casings.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and add the sausage, breaking up any clumps as it’s cooked. (I had to mince the cooked meat in a food processor.) When it’s sufficiently cooked, place on top the chopped chard, turn down the heat to low, and put a lid on the pan. The chard will reduce in size within a few minutes. It may be necessary to add a small amount of water or broth to prevent burning. Stir the cooked chard into the meat.

Cook and drain the pasta, return to the pot, and toss with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Now toss the pasta with the sausage-chard mixture. 

Place the pasta on serving plates and top with the red bell pepper sauce and then a scattering of pine nuts or almonds.

Chicken with Indian spices and pasta

   Rice is the more typical accompaniment for this sort of thing in India, but noodles aren’t unheard of on the Asian subcontinent. Besides, there’s no law prohibiting this combination.

   I was apparently feeling energetic, so I made the pasta. If you utilize a food processor, as I did, that part could hardly be easier. If you have a manual roller-type pasta press, producing flat pasta is also easy. If you don’t, you can use a rolling pin to achieve the desired thinness. (Don’t look too closely; I made it too thick.) For a pasta recipe, consult any Italian pasta cookbook, or failing that, the web. Look for recipes for all-purpose flour and egg. For visual effect and for a bit of flavor, I added 3 tablespoons of good paprika and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to 2 cups of flour. If you don’t want to make your own, just purchase flat lasagna (not “oven ready”), and add the paprika and tomato paste to the chicken mixture.

   Dark chicken meat is better than breast meat for this recipe, because it has more flavor. If you can’t find already ground dark chicken, buy boneless thighs and trim some but not all of the fat before mincing it in the processor.

Ground chicken dark meat, 1 lb

Green jalapeno, seeded, deveined, and chopped (unless you like heat)

Red jalapeno, seeded, deveined, and chopped (same here)

Shallot, minced

Ginger, 1 Tbs, minced

Garlic, 2 cloves, minced

Almonds, raw, 1/4 cup

Vegetable oil, 2 Tbs (Mustard oil if you have it)

Nigella, 1 Tbs (AKA kalonji or onion seed; omit if you can’t or don’t want to get it.)

Spinach, 6-8 oz

Saffron, 1/4 tsp

Plain yoghurt, 10 oz or so

Paprika, 3 Tbs (See above)

Tomato paste, 2 Tbs (See above)

Flat, lasagna-type pasta

Cilantro

Remove 2 or 3 Tbs of the yoghurt and set aside. Crumble the saffron in a small bowl with a tablespoon of warm water and set aside.

Combine the meat and the next six ingredients in a food processor and combine. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet, add the contents of the processor plus the nigella, and cook until the meat is done. Add the spinach and cover to allow it to reduce in volume. Mix into the chicken. Just prior to serving, add the reserved 2 or 3 tablespoons of yoghurt. 

Place one sheet of the lasagna on a plate and spread some of the chicken mixture atop. 

Place a second sheet on top of this. Drop some of the saffron yoghurt on top of this and add some cilantro. Repeat for additional servings. 

  

Calamari steaks, curry coconut vegetables, and black rice

   If you happen to find calamari - which is to say, squid - steaks, here’s something to do with them. But first, you might ask, what is a calamari steak? It’s simply the body of a large squid, not the small ones out of which the ubiquitous fried calamari appetizers are made. The body is split and laid out flat; hence, the name “steak”. They’ll almost certainly be sold frozen. Best to thaw them overnight in the refrigerator. They might still be covered with some ice crystals, so scrape them off with a knife and blot the steaks dry with paper towels. The idea is to be sure they’re dry when they hit the heat so they brown rather than steam. If you’ve never cooked with it before, here is the most important thing to remember: Do not cook it longer than, at most, two minutes per side. Otherwise, it will turn to rubber. 

   Squid itself doesn’t have a great deal of flavor. Like tofu, it’s best considered a flavor absorber, and what better flavor to absorb than a curry-coconut milk sauce? The following recipe is quite easy. Thai curry paste in small jars is widely available in ordinary grocery stores. If it isn’t in yours, I suggest you take your business to a larger, better equipped one. I used red curry paste, but green and yellow would be fine, too. Black rice is also called “forbidden” rice because, as legend has it, Chinese emperors forbade anyone else to eat it besides themselves. It might be a bit more difficult to find, but I’ve noticed that it’s becoming increasingly available. It’s worth searching out because it’s both highly nutritious and tasty in a nutty way. Plus, as you see in the photo, it adds some aesthetic interest on the plate compared with ordinary white rice, which you may use instead if your search turns up empty-handed.

Thai red curry paste, 1 or more Tbs depending on your heat tolerance

Coconut milk, 1  13.5 oz  can

Baby corn, 1  16 oz  can, rinsed and sliced

Green beans, several, trimmed

Shallot, 1 large, minced

Red jalapeños, 2, seeds and veins removed unless you want the heat

White pepper

Salt

Scallions, 3 or 4, trimmed and sliced

Cilantro, chopped

Calamari steaks

Peanut or canola oil

Salt and pepper

Forbidden/black rice, 1 cup

Chicken broth

Place the curry paste and the coconut milk in a large saucepan and heat to boiling, toss in the corn, green beans, shallot, and jalapeños, and reduce to a simmer. Add the white pepper and salt. If you’re going to be serving the dish quickly, you should parboil the green beans before adding them to the mixture; otherwise, they may not be sufficiently done.

Cook the rice according to package instructions, using chicken broth instead of water.

If you have a ridged, stove-top grilling pan, heat it on high. Brush the steaks with some oil, salt and pepper them, and put them on the grill pan. Two minutes a side, maximum.

If you don’t have such a pan, use any other pan, although cast iron is preferred.

Throw the scallions and cilantro into the simmering vegetables.

Place each steak on a plate, with the vegetables and rice alongside.