Drunken Veggies

I’m part of the social committee at work and today we cooked breakfast for the whole office. A bunch of different kinds of pancakes, the best being the banana imo, and scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. I was on pancake griddle duty for most of the time, so when I was done, I didn’t feel like looking at pancakes anymore, so I went straight for the bacon and sausage. But after OD-ing on all that pork, I really didn’t feel like having meat at all for the rest of the day. After work, I went to Mi Cabanita for some dart practice and muchos cervezas. When I got home, I was hungry, but still not feeling very carnivorous. I opened my fridge and decided to cook up whatever veggies I could make in the shortest possible amount of time. Historically, I think I’ve done much of my best improvisational cooking in a half drunken state late at night and this was one of those nights. I put two pans on the stove and ten minutes later, these two dishes comprised my dinner:

Baby Bok Choy
Shisito Peppers

In the first pan I put some baby bok choy, to which I added maybe a quarter cup of water, a generous pinch of salt and covered with a lid. The second pan I put in shisito peppers, a third of a cup of water, some soy and fish sauce and covered that with a lid too. By the time I changed into my pj’s, both pans were boiling and pretty much finished. I plated the bok choy, cracked some black pepper over it, added chili flakes and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. The other pan seemed to have less liquid in it, so I added a little more water, then added a packet of bonito flakes as soon as it came back to a simmer I served it up. Now normally, I’m a total steak and potatoes kind of guy, but damn, I have to say these two veggie dishes hit the spot tonight. If you’ve never had shisito peppers, they are usually completely mild and heat-free, but I’d say about one in every twenty of them will be mind-blowingly hot. The Japanese say you’re lucky if you get one of the hot ones. Tonight I was very “lucky” and got two of the hotties. Fortunately the heat of a shisito is different than other peppers in that they seem to only burn your tongue for about a minute or so and then the heat is gone. Other chilis can linger and numb your mouth for the duration of the meal, but shisitos do their business and disappear just as quickly. That heat from the shisitos and the subtle heat of the chili flakes on the bok choy were just what I was craving after a night of drinking, and I’ll be damned if this wasn’t one of the most satisfying veggie meals I’ve ever had. Nice simple flavors and a great change of pace for me. Yum.

2 thoughts on “Drunken Veggies

  1. The fact that you had the presence of mind to take these photographs, indicates that you clearly did not drink enough.

  2. in spain- there is this popular tapas dish- pimentos del padron- deep fried shishito peppers with salt….sooo yummy- i can eat that ALL day.

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