Edited BY
G P Kennedy
Daniel – Ney York City, USA
Spicy sesame noodles with chicken and peanuts
Ah, food. Seems like a million years ago - OK, a LOT longer than three months ago - since I got myself to the local Key Food to pick through what was left following the initial day or two of panic buying. Hatching a plan that now seems completely, bewilderingly comical, I decided I’d get enough non-perishables for two weeks of meals. I have no idea how I arrived at two weeks. I have no idea what I thought might happen at the end of the two weeks. I have a vague recollection that I thought there might actually be no food left.
But, in retrospect, a two-week supply now seems like a very childlike way of hedging one’s bets. I mean, if I’d been really concerned, I would’ve bought enough for six months (at a minimum). Not talking particularly tasty meals, but a strategic variety of canned goods that would keep us alive if the food chain suddenly went up in smoke. But I didn’t do that. What I did do was buy a dozen cans of tuna, some canned beans, pasta, cereal, and soy milk. Which is all still sitting in my kitchen (aside from the cereal and soy milk, which was gone by the end of the week). I guess I wouldn’t do well in an end-of-the-world scenario, even given prep time.
But since then, we’ve done pretty well. That was my last visit to Key Food, a large - and unpleasantly ramshackle - grocery store a few blocks from our apartment (it was never a place we used much anyway, but seemed well-suited to apocalypse-eve panic buying). Instead, we went back to Union Market, a sort of fancy-ish, large-ish, corner store. It’s part of a small chain - branches located mostly in Brooklyn - and, when they opened a few years ago, I openly mocked them to my wife. I don’t use the word “yuppie,” but, if I did, I probably would’ve complained about how Union Market catered to yuppies with their overpriced this and their imported that.
Our lockdown go to grocery store
And yet, I found myself stopping in one day for something. And then again. And again. And it turned out that, if you kept your eye on the ball, it was very possible to not g et gouged on a jar of thirteen dollar Danish preserves or whatever. And their produce was great. Fish and meats also great - far better than what the Whole Foods sold - and not particularly overpriced either. So, after not too long, Union Market was the only place we went.
The only downside was that a high percentage of their staff was routinely cranky. As someone who managed staff for years, I sensed that it was down to a cranky manager (no idea if that was correct), but that changed after a few years. But, overall, it’s a store that changed what (and how) I cooked and how we ate.
All of which is to say that, once the lockdown began, we tried to adapt our previous shopping patterns to the new normal. The first thing that changed is that my previous twice-a-DAY shopping schedule got changed to once-a-week. And never in my life had I done that kind of grocery shopping. Living in an uber-urban setting, there’s just no need to do that kind of weekly shop, in fact it's a hassle planning a week ahead and carrying all those groceries home. But we adapted.
The lines were never bad - the few times I had to wait to get into the store, it was never more than five minutes. And they never ran out of anything food-related (although they, like everyone else, had no toilet paper for a few weeks). Pretty early on, I put together a par list and just made slight variations each week. It’s worked well. The only thing that’s been odd is that our weekly bill: after having been a shockingly (for us) high $280 for four or five weeks running, it’s now about half of that. Not sure why. While I’m normally a person who’d want to figure that out, there seems to be something about a pandemic that makes me care a lot less.
But maybe I’m burying the lede here: we’re eating very well. Cooking six nights a week (takeout from a favorite Thai place the seventh night). Trying new recipes.
An old favorite revisited
I’d go so far as to say that it’s the cooking that really serves as the divider between the eight hours spent in our tiny apartment trying to get things done - the work day - and the evening/leisure time. It’s the cooking that serves as a re-set, makes our cozy place new again for eating, drinking, and movie viewing, turns it from office/studio to living space. The only downside of our food life is that it’s beginning to feel a little claustrophobic, having to eat every single dinner in the same small kitchen.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a place we love to be, but our apartment doesn’t get so much light and so it would be wonderful to sit outside and get a bit of setting sun at the end of the day. One thing we haven’t really done is to get serious about the picnic thing, but that’s next on the list. It will help tremendously, I think - especially as we get into air-conditioning season and our place really begins to feel small.
OK, so a recipe. As I mentioned, we’ve been trying a lot of different things (as well as bringing back old favorites), but I wanted to share a new one that we’ve gotten addicted to. Having it every single week. From the New York Times:
Spicy Sesame Noodles With Chicken and Peanuts. Serves 4.
INGREDIENTS
● 1 1⁄2 tablespoons red-pepper flakes
● 1 1⁄2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
● 1 1⁄2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, plus more as needed
● Kosher salt and black pepper
● 1⁄2 cup plus 1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grapeseed or vegetable
● 6 tablespoons roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
● Rind of 1/2 orange, peeled into 2- to 3-inch strips
● 1 pound ground chicken
● 10 to 12 ounces ramen or udon noodles, preferably fresh
PREPARATION
1. In a medium heatproof bowl, stir together the red-pepper flakes, soy sauce and sesame oil. Set next to the stovetop.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat, cook the 1/2 cup oil, peanuts and orange rind, shaking the pan occasionally, until the peanuts are golden and bubbling, 3 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour the contents of the skillet over the red-pepper mixture (be careful of splattering!) and set aside. (Once cool, the chile oil will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks in an airtight container.)
3. Meanwhile, in the same skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add the chicken and press it down with a wooden spoon into a thin layer. Season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper and cook, without stirring, occasionally pressing the layer of chicken down, until the bottom is browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Break the chicken up into small pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more.
4. While the chicken cooks, cook the noodles according to package directions, until chewy but not soft. Drain and toss with a bit of sesame oil.
5. Remove and discard the orange rind from the chile oil. Off the heat, add the chile oil to the chicken and stir to coat, scraping up any browned bits from the pan. Add the noodles and toss to coat. Serve at once.
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