How to cook well at the drop of a hat

(Become a prepper, basically)

After returning home from any amount of time away — time which usually includes lots of eating out, or at the very least, not cooking for ourselves — it’s extremely nice to just cook.

No amount of jet lag or weariness will get in the way: I need to make something for myself, and it needs to include something green.

The thing I’ve landed on that is infinitely adaptable and always satisfying is sort of like migas or chilaquiles, with torn up corn tortillas and whatever vegetables we have. I would put this in the same family as all the stale bread or grain dishes: fried rice, fattoush, bread upma, ribollita, and so on. So if you don’t keep corn tortillas on hand (I freeze those too), use whatever carb you do: flatbread, loaf bread, rice, or other grains. If you don’t eat carbs, chopped cauliflower would work, too — and then you’d have even MORE vegetables.

This version is very allium-forward: spring onions and leek greens

If you want to add protein, you can scramble some eggs right in the skillet, add cooked beans, tofu, or leftovers of whatever might be in your freezer.

Depending on the length of the trip the vegetables might be fresh — meaning they won’t have gone bad by the time we return — or they’ll be chopped and frozen, because we were gone for so long that everything would’ve molded. You can also pretend that you, too, live in Colorado and add green chile.

Chopping and freezing things like onions, carrots, peppers, kale, or really whatever vegetable you have on hand is a good way to avoid waste, but also a good way to make cooking your own food when you return that much faster — useful when you’re bleary-eyed and dehydrated.

The key to cooking well after you’ve been gone and presumably have not gone to a grocery store: prepare, prepare, prepare. Have your freezer or pantry stocked with a few things you know you can mix together without thinking too much. And then when you get home and it comes time to cook, don’t let yourself think too much!

It doesn’t have to be amazing. It just has to feed you.

Eggs scrambling in the middle; I think the red bits are tomato paste?

I don’t know what to call this, so let’s call it a hash

• 1 tablespoon oil

• Spices — whatever you want

• About 1/2 cup chopped onion or other alliums of your choice

• Salt

• Pepper

• Chopped or shredded vegetables of your choice — carrots, sweet peppers, zucchini, broccoli, kale, chard, literally anything — about 1 cup total per person

• 3 or so corn tortillas per person

• 2 to 3 eggs, cooked beans, or other cooked protein of choice

• Condiments for serving (this usually means Longhorn for me, but I suppose you can be classy and just use hot sauce)

• Pickled or fermented things for serving (kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled veg)

Warm the oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. If you’re adding spices, do so now, so they warm and toast a bit in the oil. We still haven’t replenished our spice supply so I’ve just been adding turmeric and our house blend.*

Once the oil is shimmering and the spices are fragrant, add the onion and a little salt and pepper. (I start with 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt and then add more after tasting later.) Stir to coat the onions, then let cook for as long as you’d like — less for crunchier onions, more for golden onions. You can also put a lid on the pan to make this go faster.

Add the vegetables, a bit more salt, and cook again until the vegetables are as tender as you want. You can add the hardier vegetables (carrots, broccoli) first and then the softer ones (zucchini, greens) a bit later, or you can throw them in all at once. If the skillet seems dry, splash a little water in to get things steaming. (If you’re using frozen vegetables, you shouldn’t need to do this.)

Tear the corn tortillas into bite-size pieces, adding them to the skillet as you go. Stir everything around and let the tortillas warm up a bit. Alternatively, to make toastier tortilla pieces, remove the vegetables to a bowl, add a bit more oil the skillet, and then add the tortilla pieces and cook until lightly browned. Add the vegetables back for the next and final step.

Shovel everything to the sides of the skillet, to make a circle in the middle. Splash a little oil in, then crack the eggs into the center and use your spatula to mix them up. Season the eggs with salt and pepper and cook until they’re as done as you like. (If you’re using beans or other protein, you can simply stir that in and cook until heated through.) Stir everything together, then serve, topped with something pickled/fermented and/or a condiment or two.

The house blend

*This is a mix of literally any spice and herb that I have an obnoxiously small amount of, that I want to get rid of, or that I don’t use that often and instead of throwing it away, I add to the jar. It’s always changing and it always works. I don’t even know what’s in it right now. Mystery! Intrigue!

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In other news, I’ve been writing for Star Chefs, a B2B magazine for the restaurant industry. The first was on cider in Virginia, the second on Czech-style beer here in Denver, and the third is in progress now. (It’s also drinks-focused. I write about drinks too!)

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Next newsletter, I’m writing about my recipe testing work, something I started doing more of this year. Let me know if you have questions related to recipe testing!