What We Eat When We Eat Alone - Deborah Madison [16]
The same roasted green chile also goes into James’s range gazpacho. “Take onion, tomato, cilantro, bell pepper, carrot, and more green chile, chunk it up in some V-juice, add lots of black pepper, and let it sit in the refrigerator. You’ve never had a gazpacho like this, but it’s not bad for range cooking,” James says.
Staying with the Southwest theme, a burrito is another basic food that does a good job of filling up that hollow leg. If you have beans, tortillas, cheese, and eggs, and, of course, some salsa or some good red chili, you can feed yourself all week, maybe even forever, on burritos. Breakfast or supper, they can be the same or they can differ. Actor John Flax has his own version of the burrito.
“I get a tortilla and put some steamed spinach in there with a chopped-up baked potato, yellow cheese, and hot sauce out of a bottle. Wrap it up in tinfoil and bake it in a toaster oven. Then peel back the foil, add more sauce, and eat.”
Scrambled eggs are also good with the potatoes and spinach, or alone, and an eggy breakfast burrito is one you can eat day or night.
Do men eat salads when they’re on their own? One describes what he eats as pretty basic stuff, and that includes salads. “Whatever’s in the refrigerator,” he says, “but no exotic lettuces. I find them too bitter. Carrots, regular lettuce, throw whatever in and put on a little olive oil. Done. Finished.”
A wine and architectural enthusiast says that if it’s just him alone he eats “pretty healthy.” That is, he makes a salad “with greens and stuff, including arugula.” But the three eat-alone meals he described—steak sandwiches with asparagus, frijoles with salsa fresca, and chilaquiles, sound nothing like salad even if they do sound good. As for their being pretty healthy, you can decide.
The idea of cooking a lot of asparagus and drawing from it at will is a good one. Just simmer it in salted water until it’s tender, let it drain on a clean towel, and refrigerate. Dress it just before you eat it so it doesn’t go gray on you. It’s simple and straightforward, and you can do that with lots of vegetables—beets, green beans, and artichokes, too.
Although this is mostly a man’s chapter, Amelia Saltsman also turns to a platter of roasted asparagus to eat off of over a few days, only hers is a bit more done up. “I roast two big bunches of the first thick asparagus from the farmers market with a bit of olive oil, Maldon sea salt, and black pepper. I boil up three Aurcana eggs (the blue ones), and make a whole-grain mustard vinaigrette. I crumble the eggs over the asparagus, pour the vinaigrette over all, and scatter some toasted stale, torn bread on that and, of course, a little more crunchy salt. I pick up the spears one by one. No utensils required other than a soup spoon to scoop up any bits of egg and dressing at the end. I eat half the first day, warm, most of the rest cold the next day for lunch, and the last bit as a snack late in the day.” We highly recommend this dish.
Our male solo eater enjoyed his asparagus to eat all week with the tri-tip that he grills and uses for steak sandwiches. The tri-tip is mostly known as a California cut that’s mainly featured in Santa Maria barbecue, but it is gradually becoming better known outside of the area. (I just spied a tri-tip tortilla wrap in Trader Joe’s, so you know it’s getting out there.) Our local rancher who sells grass-fed beef at the farmers market knew right away what it was and even had one on hand. “But you have to cut it thin,” he warned. And you really do. It’s a tough one.
“You might prefer a grilled flank steak,” commented a friend, surprised that anyone would recommend a tri-tip, although marinating does help.
Regardless, the instructions are, “Put good olive oil on bread and oregano on the thinly sliced meat. Add lettuce and tomato, and serve it with the asparagus.” And that’s his