The Simplest and Fastest Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti and meatballs in less than half an hour!

Difficulty: Very Easy

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Cost per serving: $0.25 to $0.40

Useful leftovers: Yes

The Fastest and Tomatoiest!
1 can very good tomatoes.
1 onion
1 rib of celery

A bit of oil

One of the better canned tomatoes from California is fine. Check the label and if you find some without a lot of salt and without calcium chloride pick that.

Chop the onion and celery and saute in a heavy bottomed pot until translucent in a bit of oil. Add the tomatoes and heat through. Let it simmer for a while. Mash up the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

This is surprisingly good and so simple. You can jazz it up by adding garlic, red wine, rosemary, cumin, pesto, basil, sausage, salami, ground beef, cheese, lemon, tiny shrimp or any number of other goodies!

You can use this sauce with pasta of course but you can also use it to cook chicken or fish or as a seasoning for other sauces. You can add it to macaroni and cheese to make it tomatoey or put it on top of a roast or meat loaf. So handy!

The reason we look for tomatoes without calcium chloride is that they add it to keep the tomatoes whole and firm, and we want them to break down into the sauce.

Thunder Chicken

Difficulty: Medium

Prep time: 5 minutes for one or two servings

Cooking time: 15 - 25 minutes, then 5 minutes to rest

Cost per serving: $0.50 to $2.00 depending on what chicken pieces you use

Useful leftovers: Yes. This is great cold

 
I created this dish for a fancy dinner I was catering many years ago at a nice house in Los Altos. There was a large komado grill and I asked a friend to get a charcoal fire going in there. He dropped a whole 20 pound bag of charcoal and lit it. That grill was so hot it took all the hair off both my arms and I was using long tongs!

The chicken came out great. And it's so cost effective. That's business talk for 'it makes a cheapskate smile.'

This recipe is for range cooking but it works as well on an outdoor grill.

I have an aversion to burnt garlic and can tell if there is a molecule of it in a red sauce. I hate it on fish. To me garlic should be barely translucent, not brown.

However for this dish the garlic gets really cooked. Browned. Destroyed. Yum!

Chicken
Garlic, for each piece of chicken figure 2 whole cloves of garlic
Toasted sesame oil, figure a teaspoon per piece of chicken and one more tablespoon for cooking
Salt
Pepper

Cut your chicken into serving size pieces. You can leave the skin on or take it off. Put the chicken in a bowl.

Chop the garlic. You don't have to make all the pieces the same size, just chop away. Dump it in the bowl with the chicken.

Sprinkle on some sesame oil.

You can marinate the chicken overnight to get a deeper sesame flavor in the chicken but it works well if you cook it right away too.


If you cook it on the stove put a small amount of sesame oil in a cold, heavy bottomed pan and add the chicken. Turn the heat on and bring it up to medium. You want the garlic to brown but not burn. It is going to cook for a long time so it's critical you get the pan the right temperature. If it is sizzling hard it is too hot. If it is not sizzling then it is too cool.


You can cook the chicken completely in the pan or you can brown it in the pan then put the pan in a hot oven (400°) until it is done. You'll get crisper skin if you cook it all on the stove top but you will get more tender chicken if you finish it in the stove. You can also finish it in the stove then crisp the skin in the pan.

When the chicken is completely cooked let it rest for 5 minutes before eating. The best way to know if it's done is to touch the chicken. Chicken that is still raw in the middle feels squishy and when it is overdone it feels hard. This is the only tricky part of this recipe; getting the chicken cooked properly and the skin crispy. It takes a little experience.

You can garnish the chicken with sesame seeds or chopped raw tomato and basil or cilantro. This dish goes well with mashed, roasted or baked potatoes, a cooling green salad and some sauteed veggies.

Onions and Fennel

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 7 - 10  minutes

Cost per serving: $0.75 to $1.00

Useful leftovers: Yes. This is great thrown into a soup or used in a pasta sauce

I served a nice dinner to a friend yesterday and this was the dish he really liked. It's easy and fast and very tasty.

This recipe involves dry-frying, my technique of cooking vegetables in a hot pan with no oil or liquids.

1 Onion
1 large bulb of Fennel
A bit of olive oil or butter
Salt and Pepper

Peel, remove the stem and chop the onion into slices or chunks at least 1/4" thick. If they are too thin they will burn rather than grill.

Peel if necessary, remove the core and chop of slice the same size as the onion.

Put the vegetables in a cold heavy bottomed frying pan and turn the heat onto medium. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are completely cooked and browned a little. Season with salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil or butter and swirl the pan around. Serve.

This dish can stay hot in the pan for a few minutes.

You can make this with parsnips, celery, very small dice of carrots, zucchini, etc.

You can serve this with Super Sauce, walnut pieces, bits of smoked ham, sliced green leafy herbs like basil or parsley, or rosemary or cumin.

Cucumber and Carrot Salad

Difficulty: Very easy

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: None

Cost per serving: $0.25 to $1.00

Useful leftovers: Useful but not great. The salad is best fresh.

So easy! So healthy! So tasty!
1 cucumber
1 carrot
1 tablespoon of walnut pieces
Toasted sesame oil
Lemon juice or vinegar
Salt and pepper

Wash the cucumber and slice it thinly or cut into chunks.

Scrub the carrot and cut it into small pieces. I like to do this by cutting a thin slice lengthwise so it will sit flat, then cutting it into wedges, then cutting those into sticks. Use a sharp, heavy knife for best control.

Put the cucumber and carrot in a mixing bowl and season with the sesame oil, lemon juice or vinegar and salt and pepper. Sprinkle the walnuts on top and serve.

To make this really special, toast the walnuts for a few minutes in a dry saute pan over medium heat or in a 350° oven for a few minutes, then let them cool and add them to the salad.

Sauteed Celery

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: 2 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Cost per serving: $0.25 to $0.50

Useful leftovers: Good reheated and good to throw in soup or use other ways

This is a simple dish but it's unusual and has a lot of flavor and texture.

Celery
Olive Oil
Salt, pepper and a pinch of celery seeds.

Wash and slice a few ribs of celery about 1/4 inch thick. Heat a dry, heavy bottomed pan and add the celery and let it sit for a minute or two until it starts to turn brown. Add a bit of olive oil (just for flavor really) and grind a pinch of celery seeds with your fingers over it, sprinkle with salt and serve.

Takes a couple of minutes, is low in calories and tastes great. Simple and delicious and unusual enough to serve at the fanciest tables.

You can vary the recipe by adding onions, corn, parsnips, parsley, etc. It's great for a bed for entrees.

How to cook Green Beans

Quick, easy and so tasty as a side dish.

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: up to ten minutes

Cooking time: 1 to 5 minutes

Cost per serving: $0.50 to $1.00

Useful leftovers: Yes

I love this method of cooking vegetables. They steam in their own juices and get a little browning action.

Clean, dry and trim some green beans. Cut them into one inch lengths.



Get a heavy bottomed pan hot and add the beans. Do not put oil or butter in the pan first. Don't stir them, let them brown.

When you can see they are about a third of the way done shake the pan and turn them all over to cook the other side.

When they are about a third of the way done on the second side add a pat or two of butter and swirl the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and remove from the pan immediately.

The beans will be crunchy and have a great deep flavor.

This recipe also works with zucchini, celery, parsnips, etc.

Easy, Fast, Tasty, Pea soup

Just one word - YUM!

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: up to ten minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Cost per serving: $0.50 and up depending on garnishes

Useful leftovers: Yes


Just like the title says this is easy, fast and very tasty. 

1 small onion or half a big one
1 small carrot of half a big one
1 pound bag of frozen peas, rinsed with hot water
Pinch of thyme, fresh or dried
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Cut the carrot and onion into small dice. Saute gently in the olive oil until they are cooked but not browned. This is called sweating.

Add the peas and enough water just to cover them. Bring to a boil and blend, either with a stick or regular blender or in a food processor. Salt and pepper to taste.

To make it fancy blend it really well then force it through a sieve. This will get rid of any bits of veggies that didn't puree completely and give you a smoother texture.

You can add a touch of cream and a dot of butter if you want a more classic French style soup.

You can garnish this soup many ways. I like crunchy or salty things as they contrast with the mild soup. Croutons, nuts, bits of ham, small chunks of lemon and bits of black olive are all great with this soup. You could put a dollop of yogurt or sour cream in the middle for a nice garnish.

Onions and Peppers

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: Depends on how much you make but for 2 lbs of peppers and an onion figure 10 minutes

Cooking time: 7 - 10  minutes

Cost per serving: cheap

Useful leftovers: Oh yes

This sounds too simple to be good. I almost always have a tub of this in my fridge and I use it all the time.

Onions
Sweet red peppers
Olive oil
Salt

This would be so drab without it!

It couldn't be much simpler. Go to a market where you can get inexpensive red bell peppers. There are some Asian markets near here where I sometimes get them for less than a dollar. 

Number two peppers are fine for this. Those are the ones that are too twisted or have a scar or blemish and can't be sold as a number 1. As long as they are not cracked open or disgusting or old they are fine. Look for crisp ones that have a relatively smooth skin.

I don't care about the skins on the peppers but if you do go ahead and peel them. 

Wash and dry the peppers. Cut the flesh into strips. I don't cook for customers or teachers so I don't care if they are all the same size. Makes no difference here.

Cut an onion into chunks.

Put the vegetables into a dry, heavy bottomed pan. You cannot make this in a thin pan. You'll burn everything. Turn the heat onto medium and when they are just starting to brown add 1/4 cup of good olive oil. Not a fancy olive oil, just not a bitter cheesy one.

Turn the heat way down and stir like mad.  At this point you want to cook the stuff very slowly for at least 1/2 hr.  We don't want a lot of browning but we want everything to be fully cooked and soft. Don't let a molecule of raw onion remain but be careful nothing burns. If you can cook it for 45 minutes without burning it so much the better.

Put the peppers and onions into a bowl and scrape the stuff from the bottom of the pan into the bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and another tablespoon of olive oil. When it is cooled to room temperature put it in the fridge.

Here are some ways that I use this:

As a bruschetta topping, sometimes with smoked herring and lemon or with cucumbers
As a pasta sauce base
As a meat sauce base
As a salad dressing base
Over a rare steak or piece of lamb or sausage
As a salad ingredient
As a filling in a stuffed chicken breast of pork chop
As a flavoring oil'
As a dip

You can vary this many ways. I sometimes add serrano chiles or chunks of potato. I like to sprinkle Cholula hot sauce on it. You can use it to top chile or enchiladas. It's great with sour cream.

These peppers go well with bits of salty things like ham but also with very savory things like grilled meat, sausage, or meaty fish like mackerel.

The best thing in this recipe is the oil! It tastes great. Just sprinkle a little on a grilled Italian sausage, or grilled eggplant or tomatoes. Just great.