Packing Light

Turn a couple easy dishes into a week of meals,
the culinary version of packing light.

The other day I was un-self-consciously promoting this blog, as I am wont to do, excitedly telling a friend about all the photos I'd taken in Asia. "Sounds great," he replied, with bitter sarcasm, "I'll have to check it out next time I need to figure out where to eat in Asia." His point being, if he's going to waste his valuable time looking at pictures of food (he's clearly not a foodie), it better be food he can eat. Fair point. So interspersed with the pointless but delightful entries I plan to bring you stuffed with photos of food you probably won't be eating any time soon, I'll try and provide some things that will be of a bit more practical use.

Taste and See: Two of my most popular entries to date have been the seared tuna steak and its variation, which are easy enough for even my non-foodie friend, so I thought I'd update with my new tuna obsession.

I found a stunning photo of a sesame-encrusted tuna steak in Gourmet Magazine a few days ago, and while I was far too lazy to make it to the letter (fry strips of zucchini for garnish? are you mad?), tonight I am sitting down to my fourth serving of my own faux-gourmet version of sesame-seed encrusted seared tuna steak in a week. Overkill? Perhaps. But it is just so good, and so easy . . .

But woman cannot live by tuna alone. In fact, while I normally eat very little meat, my mom was chiding me about iron over the holidays so I bought some beef for a change. And SE Asia has little in the way of fresh greens, so I also picked up some broccoli, a big bag of washed salad leaves and some random salad toppings. After having been out of town for a month my fridge has mostly remnants of nearly-expired fruits & veggies, but my well-stocked cupboard has plenty of dried carbs, like couscous and rice noodles.

In the true faux gourmet spirit, I turned all that into a couple of dishes that can complement each other in a couple easy combinations. About one hour total cooking produced several interesting, and totally different, meals. Think of it as a food-parallel to an expert traveler who packs light and still manages to come up with a different, fabulous outfit every day.

First, the individual dishes:
1. Left-over Veggie Couscous
2. Fried Soy-Sauce Rice Noodles with Broccoli
3. Beef Fajita-Filling
4. Sesame Seed Encrusted Tuna Steak
5. Mixed-greens salad with various toppings

Second, the meals I made of them:


1. Pepper-beef Couscous over Mixed Greens [1 + 3 + 4 + Hummus]
- Top a bed of mixed greens with a scoop of couscous and 1/2 the fajita filling
2. Sesame Tuna Steak and Noodles [2 +5]
- Serve 1/2 Tuna Steak over a small portion of broccoli-accented soy-sauce rice noodles
3. Fajitas [3 + tortillas]
- Fill tortillas with remaining fajita mixture
4. Phat Siew & side salad [5 + 2 + peanuts]
- Top remaining noodles with peanuts and add a side salad with toppings of your choice
5. Tuna Steak Salad with Couscous [1+ 4 +5 + Sesame Soy Dressing]
- Adding strips of seared tuna steak to wild greens, orange slices, cashews, and a soy sauce dressing and finish off the couscous

Now for the recipes, if you can even call the simple steps "recipes." More important than that are the time-saving tips at the end. I really made all that in about an hour, and you really can too- it is just a question of doing things efficiently.

What you'll need to cook the five meals above for 1 person:
1. 1/2 lb tuna steak
2. 1 pack sesame seeds
3. 1 pack dried rice noodles
4. 1/2 cup couscous and a little butter
5. Bag of wild greens
6. Various salad toppings, such as: roasted nuts, dried berries or other fruit, sun dried or fresh tomatoes, oranges, apples, shredded carrots, green or red onions. A great way to use up leftover veggies!
7. 1/2 lb meat you like (I used beef)
8. Tortillas
9. The random odds and ends of leftover veggies in your fridge. You can use almost anything in the couscous, pad siew and fajitas. You'll need a little over 2 cups total.
10. Salt, pepper, garlic & whatever spices you have on hand
11. Soy sauce & a few other Asian sauces
12. 1 egg
13. Tupperware, because you're going to have leftovers!

Couscous:
This is essentially Almost-Instant Couscous, only using whatever leftovers your fridge has to offer. The couscous box should also contain easy microwave directions, but if it doesn't,
- Mix 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup couscous and 1/2 cup water in a microwave safe bowl.
- Cover and microwave 3 1/2 minutes.
- Fluff with fork.
- Stir in any toppings, approx 3/4 cup.


You can eat it plain, of course, but I almost always use couscous as a vehicle for using up the random bits of things in my fridge that would otherwise go unloved. This time that meant some chopped up celery, which I briefly sauteed in butter; the few not-yet-moldy spinach leaves from a pack purchased weeks ago with the best of intentions, sauteed briefly with the celery; a few stray sun dried tomatoes, and a handful of dried cranberries originally purchased to top salads. I seasoned with a bit of salt, pepper and cumin. Try mixing in a bit of plain yogurt to add moisture without adding fat (thank you Barefoot Contessa), and other toppings like pine nuts, green onions, eggplant cubes, mushrooms, or dried cranberries. Briefly saute vegetables if you don't want it too crunchy.

If you're a big eater double the recipe and save yourself the trouble, but use a big bowl, because the couscous plumps up quite a bit when cooked.

Fried soy-sauce noodles with broccoli:
This is essentially Phat Siew recipe, pared down-
- Soak dried rice noodles in hot water (a bunch about as big as your fist can grab)
- Chop about 3/4 cup broccoli into bite-sized pieces and fry briefly with some garlic; set aside
- Mix equal parts soy sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce and rice wine vinegar + a dash lime juice and sugar, totaling about 1/2 cup total sauce; in a pinch you can always stick to watered down soy sauce (so it doesn't get too salty but still has enough liquid) + sugar
- Fry rice noodles in oil, adding sauce as they soften
- Crack egg into pan and scramble as it cooks, stirring into noodles
- Add broccoli to noodles
- Season to taste (add chili flakes, sugar, lime juice, or soy sauce to adjust flavor)

Beef fajita filling:
- Fry a few cut up pieces of garlic in oil
- Add about 3/4 cup vegetables and saute til soft; set aside
- Slice meat into strips and place on very hot pan to sear, turning once


I cut up the remains of two aging bell peppers for my filling, though mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, or even potatoes would be tasty as well. For flavoring I used a jar of sauce from Trader Joes (Cuban Mojito sauce), adding to the vegetables about midway through cooking them. You could use any pre-made sauce you like, but if nothing else, salt, pepper and garlic go a long way.

I also like my beef a bit rare, so a minute or so per side was enough to cook it perfectly. If you need to cook it all the way through it will take a bit longer.

Sesame Seed Encrusted Tuna Steak:
- Toast sesame seeds til a bit darker than golden brown in large, flat pan
- Rinse & dry tuna steak
- Coat each side of steak with a small amount of oil (I used the lovely Lime Reisling Grapeseed oil; the subtle flavor of the lime sneaks through perfectly) and cover in sesame seeds
- Sear in very hot pan for about 1 minute on each side for very rare tuna or longer (3-4 minutes per side) if you want it more done; see here for technique tips


Saving Time:
- Buy salad toppings that require no chopping- cashews, cranberries, pre-shredded carrots; making a salad takes all of 2 minutes.
- Start by soaking the rice noodles in hot water, as it takes a while.
- Toast the sesame seeds for the tuna while the couscous is in the microwave, then keep them in an airtight container in your cupboard for future use- you'll definitely have leftovers.
- Do all the veggie chopping in one fell swoop and set aside the veggies in small bowls; you'll feel just like a TV chef pouring them in with grace and ease
- Only once the vegetables are all chopped get out the meat; it makes cleaning much easier
- Mix sauces, such as the one required for fried noodles, before you begin cooking the noodles, so you're not trying to add separate ingredients and stir at the same time
- Saute at the same time, but in two separate pans, veggies for couscous and those for the fajita filling. Re-use the fajita pan without cleaning for the fajita meat; re-use the couscous pan for the tuna after rinsing briefly and letting the burner evaporate the water as the pan heats.

Enjoy!