Four-Flavor Green Beans

This dish was made "on-the-fly" and it achieves that ideal flavor combination of hot, sour, salty, sweet.

FOUR-FLAVOR GREEN BEANS WITH SHALLOTS

2 lobes of shallots, peeled and thinly sliced and separated into rings

2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

1 pound of fresh green beans (I had haricots verts, but regular green beans work just fine), trimmed, cut into 2-inch segments and blanched

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

In the wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallot rings and stir fry until softened and lightly charred. Add the blanched green beans and stir fry to mix well. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and red pepper flakes. Stir and toss until well combined. Taste a bean. If needed, add a touch more soy sauce. Serve as part of a meal with rice.

Cabbage Soup

It sounds so paltry, but some Chinese cabbage, tofu, soy bean thread (cellophane noodles), water and soy sauce can do wonders. If you have a winter tomato, as I did today, you can chop it up, saute it in the soy sauce and build a little flavor. It's perfect with or without rice.

CABBAGE SOUP

Makes 2 Quarts

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 small tomato, any kind, roughly diced (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup soy sauce (or tamari)

2 quarts water

1 small head Chinese cabbage, cut into squares (about 4-5 cups cut)

1 block silken or soft tofu, cut into bite-size squares

1 bundle soy bean thread

Salt to taste, if needed

In a soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes start to soften, about 1 minute. Add the soy sauce and continue stirring/sauteing, about 1 minute. Add the water, cabbage and tofu. Turn up heat to high and bring to a boil. Immediately turn down the heat to medium or medium-low and let the soup simmer until the cabbage has soften and the tofu heated through. Add the bean thread and let soften, about 2-3 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt to taste, if necessary. I usually have to add a pinch.

You can, at this point, add a sprinkle of white pepper and a drizzle of sesame oil, if you'd like. If you have any cilantro laying around, a few leaves as garnish in each bowl would punch up the flavor.

Serve with rice, if you'd like.

Hunger Challenge, Some Thoughts

 (*This is a belated summary of my United Way of King County Hunger Action Week experience.)

I don't know hunger. Even when my immigrant family first landed in the United States with a few possessions and what was left of my parents' life savings after the expense of transplanting a family of four, we somehow figured out how to survive. We were poor, but we were never hungry. At least my parents never let us suffer hunger.

When I agreed to take the Hunger Challenge, I knew that it was only an exercise meant to draw attention to the United Way's advocacy efforts. I think there's an important distinction here, because without being embedded in a family living in poverty, it would be nearly impossible to simulate the circumstances and mindset that inform food decisions. Sure, I can buy groceries based on a budget and cook from those ingredients. But that only shows that I can shop on a budget and cook. It doesn't show that I understand the desperation, fear and stress of a mom trying to feed her children on food stamps. Even with a budget and rules set by the United Way, I believe the only "suffering" my family experienced was having to stick to a menu.

I participated in the Hunger Challenge to show that if you know how to shop resourcefully and cook, you can feed your family not only on a budget but also using healthful and wholesome ingredients. That applies to any family. But...what if the family is homeless, what if the parent(s) work ungodly hours, what if, what if? I can't answer those questions. What I know for certain is that you will always eat more economically (and healthfully) over time if you cook. You can read the previous posts to see the descriptions of most of what we ate. Here are the stats:

Total budget for the week: $130 or $26/day for a family of 5.

Total cost of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) over 5 days: $84.75 or $45.25 under budget for the week.

Average cost per day: $16.95 or $9.05 under budget per day.

Hunger Challenge, Day 4

Breakfast, 3/24: I made breakfast burritos for the kids with two eggs and cheddar cheese. I made some steelcut oatmeal for the grownups. My mom ate her portion plain with a fried egg on the side. My husband and I mixed a touch of brown sugar and dried cranberries in our oatmeal.

Lunch, 3/24: With about a half cup of leftover roast chicken, I made a chicken salad sandwich for my husband to take to work.

For the kids, I boiled the other half bag of pasta and mixed that with the reserved meat sauce that I had made for the lasagna on Monday. The rest of the leftover roast chicken went into a soup with some brown rice, carrots, celery, onions, parsley - and some leftover sauteed zucchini and mushrooms from last night. My mom and I had this soup for lunch.

Dinner, 3/24: There was enough of the chicken and rice soup left for dinner.

The cost of the pot of soup was $5.50. The total cost of the day: $15 ($11 under budget).

Hunger Challenge, Day 3

Breakfast, 3/23: Cereal/milk

Lunch, 3/23: Two of us had leftover stir-fried noodles and three of us had leftover lasagna.

Dinner, 3/23: Roasted chicken, potatoes and carrots, with sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. Cost of dinner, with plenty of leftover chicken to make soup tomorrow = $14. Total cost for the day: $18 ($8 under budget).