Ginger scallion sauce, again.

I wrote this post back in the summer of 2010. I basically hated that whole summer but this ginger scallion sauce is one of the few good things I remember from back then.

I still think it's pretty great, and make it often. A bit after reading Francis Lam's article, I saw a similar recipe in the  Momofuku cookbook. It's even simpler, just spring onion and ginger and salt and oil, with a small dash of Sherry vinegar. It's good, but I prefer the taste of cooked spring onion. I also find that it's so moreish that if I make a whole big batch that is supposed to keep in the fridge, it disappears in a single meal. And that's a lot of oil for a single meal. 

So here's what I do now. I cut up a few spring onions, just the green bits, until I have what I need. I chop or grate some ginger. Put both in a mug with some salt, cover with vegetable oil, not even enough to cover. And give it a minute in the microwave.

This is very fast, I don't need to bring out the machinery, there is no bubbling oil, and the sauce is still terrific. Have it on plain Chinese egg noodles, with a splash of hoisin sauce, as David Chang says in the book, or on anything, really. Best-fast-food-EVER. 

(Choice of illustration entirely random, a page I rather like from my current sketchbook)

Back to school

Late summer has hit me hard this year. Three books to finish on the same deadline, and my daughter starting school. With a method they use here in the UK whereby the parent spends almost as much time at the school as the child, carefully letting them go in such easy stages that the wee one will have no trauma whatsoever. The mother, of course, is sticking straws in her hair by that point. 

Still, that's over. And thanks to those lovely dinner ladies, you will not be having to endure me banging on about lunch boxes. We'll leave that to Amanda Hesser and her science fiction kids.

Thank goodness for the freezer, then. Full of good stuff, it gets you through anything, because even if you're making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, cooking some frozen leaf spinach slowly with a bit of butter and garlic cumin and a few raisins makes it look like a proper meal. Which it is.

So there you go. Keep it full of spinach, green beans, peas, sweet corn, salmon, sausages, stock and of course ice cream, and you can take whatever editors and schools throw at you.