I love cookbooks. I collect cookbooks. Sometimes, I read cookbooks in bed before going to sleep. I have been gratified in recent months to realize that a number of people also treat cookbooks as literature, but then I had this realization: I was only using them as literature.

Somehow, despite having already accrued 34 cookbooks here in Minneapolis (in addition to the maybe more than 100 I have at home in Berkeley), I never cook out of cookbooks anymore. Blame the internets. Somehow, somewhere along the way, cooking out of a book became a rarity for me, and one that seemed like a greater undertaking than pulling a recipe from the world wide webs. This was, of course, totally irrational: recipes from cookbooks don’t, by definition, take any more effort than recipes from the internet, plus most of the recipes I get from the internets came from books originally.

So, I decided to reacquaint myself with my cookbook shelves, beginning with this wonderful, Wonderful stew from my beloved, Beloved Jamie Oliver.

I love Jamie Oliver, and whether it is cool to love him or not, I don’t know, but I credit him with the beginnings of my interest in cooking. Well, him and my mom (who truly deserves the credit), but Jamie is the one who taught me that you don’t have to measure most things, that you don’t have to pull parsley or cilantro leaves off the stem, and that you can juice a lemon directly into a dish, using your fingers to catch the seeds.

His books are beautiful and lush, brimming with beautiful dishes that frequently avoid exact recipes, providing guidelines instead. And, most recently, he is doing really, really good work with school lunches and the obesity epidemic in America. And he has a show about all that coming out on abc! He is my hero.

He is my hero because of all the extra-good stuff he does, but he wouldn’t be able to do all that extra-good stuff if he hadn’t laid a foundation of really really delicious food. A Jamie Oliver recipe has never done me wrong, and this stew was no exception. Hearty, smoky, and easy-peasy, to last for days and only get better as leftovers (smokier, more complex). This is like a really upgraded chili, all the more classed up with chopped hardboiled egg as a garnish, for a little contrast. Go make it, tonight, from my cookbook to your computer, and perfect for this inbetween time of year that’s not quite winter and not quite spring.

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

Adapted from Jamie’s Dinners

Serves 8

Ingredients

-       6 oz. chorizo sausage, chopped

-       1 onion, peeled and chopped

-       1 clove of garlic (or more!), peeled and finely chopped

-       2 sticks of celery, chopped

-       2 bunches (maybe 1.5 lb) spinach, washed and chopped

-       1 – 28 oz. can tomatoes, with juice (either pre-diced, or you can chop them; also, JO calls for fresh tomatoes here, but it’s winter in Minnesota, and so that’s just not happening)

-       1 – 28 oz. can chickpeas, drained

-       5 cups chicken stock

-       2 oz. prosciutto (or Spanish ham)

-       hard boiled eggs

-       olive oil

-       salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Add the chorizo. Cook for a few minutes until fat is rendered, then add onion, garlic, and celery. Reduce heat and cover, cooking for about 15 minutes (without coloring the onions, though no harm will really befall you if they get a little brown).
2. Add spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas, and chicken stock. (Add more chicken stock or water if you think you need more liquid.) Bring to a boil, then lower heat and let simmer for about 40 minutes.
3. You don’t have to (but I did): Remove about a third of the soup and puree it in the food processor. This will make things more stew-y, rather than soup-y. Return puree to pot and give everything a stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in prosciutto and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.
5. Serve with grated (or finely-chopped) hardboiled egg on top.

Here at Food Junta, we mention the Minimalist a fair amount. But in all my minimalist reading, I don’t think I’ve ever seen MBittz wax quite as poetic as he did over this ginger fried rice, adapted from his friend and cookbook collaborator (and majorly fancy pants chef) Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Rarely do I read a recipe that I feel a need to make quite as immediately as this, but between Bittman’s effusive praise, the short list of ingredients, and the quick prep time, I was sold.

As Bittman also says, don’t let the multiple steps here daunt you. They each only take a few minutes, and the whole thing can be done with just two pans (one for the rice and accoutrement, one for frying the eggs). The result is — if not as mindblowing as Bittman makes it sound — pretty darn good, particularly for a dish that is composed mostly of leftover rice that would otherwise sit in my fridge for a week before meeting its maker in the trash can. I used leftover brown rice, JGV recommends Jasmine, Bittsy recommends leftover white rice from Chinese takeout. Choose your poison.

The whole dish comes together in twenty minutes, tops; the bits of leek are like little jewels in a sea of rice, reborn, swimming in luscious egg yolk; all topped off with garlic and ginger crunchies, to boot. If you make nothing else from this recipe, do try the garlic and ginger crunchies. You could use them to top just about anything, and when has fried garlic ever made a dish less tasty?

One other note: the Minimalist serves this as a dish unto itself. While it would make a fine supper, I like something a little more vegetable-y and a little less carbohydrate-y for my main meal, so I served this on the side of a tofu-veggie stir-fry. Again, up to you.

Ginger Fried Rice

Adapted from Mark Bittman/Jean-Georges Vongerichten, NYT

Serves 4, but if you’re me, you’d prefer it as a side dish

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup peanut oil

- 2 tablespoons minced garlic

- 2 tablespoons minced ginger

- Salt

- 2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried

- 4 cups day-old cooked rice, at room temperature (I used brown rice)

- 4 large eggs

- 2 teaspoons sesame oil

- 4 teaspoons soy sauce.

1. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly.

2. Reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons oil and leeks. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt.

3. Raise heat to medium and add rice. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Season to taste with salt.

4. In a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining oil, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny.

5. Divide rice among four dishes. Top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.

(Welcome to Breakfast Briefs. If you’re like me, you find yourself rushing out the door hungry and undercaffeinated many a morning, the inevitable result of which is $6 spent on a bad egg sandwich and coffee fit only for war criminals. In these posts, I’m going to share my tips and tricks for getting to work fed without adding more than 5 or 10 minutes to your morning routine.)

It’s been a while since I did a Breakfast Briefs post, but that’s because it’s been a while since I’ve done anything interesting for breakfast. It’s been a lot of yogurt and bananas at my desk, and it’s been getting old.

I saw some version of these muffins on a blog I can’t remember and had been meaning to try them for a while, so I finally went out, bought a muffin tin and some of those little paper muffin cups, and put on my breakfast hat (a jaunty fedora).

Baked goods are great for breakfast as you can just grab and go, but if I eat something sweet like a regular muffin for breakfast, I usually find myself hungry an hour later. Not so with these babies, which are basically an egg sandwich in muffin form.

And they’ve got green stuff in them, so they’ve got to be healthy, right?

The recipe here is an adaptation of several I’ve seen out on the interwebs.  There’s a fair amount of wiggle room in ingredients, I’d imagine, but try to keep the egg-flour-baking soda-cottage cheese ratio roughly the same. If you are a meat lover, you could definitely add bacon. Other ideas include bell pepper, tomatoes, or fresh herbs. I used scallions because I had some around, but any onion will do.

These muffins do tend to stick to the paper quite a bit. If you’ve got some spray olive oil or the like, greasing them up is probably a good idea. Popping one in the microwave for 30 seconds before eating also makes it easier to peel and warm to boot, but they are certainly good cold as well.

Savory Eggy Muffiny Breakfast Things

1/2 pound mushrooms,cleaned and sliced
1 bunch spinach, rinsed, and chopped
1/4 cup scallions, rinsed and sliced
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
5 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup cheddar, grated

1. Saute scallions in a small amount of olive oil for 2-3 minutes.  Add mushrooms and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

2. Add spinach. The spinach needs a little water in the pan to steam. If you just washed it, the water on the leaves will be enough. If it’s had a chance to drain, add two tablespoons of water.

3. Meanwhile, combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, cottage cheese, and cheddar. Stir to combine.

4. When the shrooms/spinach are cooked, let them cool, then add them to the mix. If there is a ton of water left in the pan, you may want to drain some off first.

5. Grease muffin cups if desired. Fill cups with batter until almost full. (This recipe makes about 8-12 muffins depending on size.)

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until tops are nicely browned and/or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.