Just A Bowl Of

One of the easiest meals is one involving a bowl and a slew of good for you ingredients. It's not only an easy lunch or dinner to whip up but also a nutritious one.it can be made fresh or with ingredients. Another plus is that even novice chefs can create something delicious and complex.

Bowl meals are not new. Most of Asia have some form of this.One of the most famous and one that's gaining speed here in the States is bibimbap. It's a mix of fresh stir fried veggies and rice,topped with a fried egg. what is good with this is that it can be customized. Cabbage lovers can add both savoy and bok choy . Those who enjoy crunch can add some raw peppers and carrots. Meat lovers can tip it in their favor with extra chicken, beef, or pork, while veggie lovers can add extra greens such as kale and fiddlehead ferns,Bibimbop also gets some zing from Korean hot pepper paste or gochuchang. Rice is the base ,of this melding the flavors all together while being the grain requirement. For the dish, the veggies should be julienned however if you want to chop everything in bigger chunks you can. The same idea for the gochuchang. If it's too fiery then sub in soy sauce. It's still make the dish flavorful but won't have that mouth numbing bite. You can also get rid of the eggs as well and sub in rice noodles for the rice.

For a simpler bowl you can't get much simpler than polenta mixed with butter and Parmesan cheese. It's tasty, and filling, an easy hot meal for after a hard day's work. Again it can be varied. Sliced sausage can be added along with grape tomatoes and mushrooms.Shrimp goes surprisingly well with the grain and you can easily add it to cooked polenta. Chicken is another meat that can give the corn meal a boost.Even  left over polenta can be transformed into a tasty bowl , being reheated in the microwave with tomatoes, butter and/or cheese.An American spin on it is a grits bowl. This can even be made for breakfast with the addition of cheddar and butter. Like bibimbap, it can be topped with fried eggs for more protein.Breakfast sausage or bacon can also be tossed in. A grits bowl is also a good lunch or dinner bowl. Chicken and gravy could also work with it,. One of the simplest bowls to make is just taking plain white rice, topping it with beans and then build on it with meats, tofu and/or veggies. Black beans in sauce , topped with shredded cheese is  a tasty dinner. Stir fried steak and veggies , soaked in soy sauce would be a great topper for any wild rice variety.

A bowl meal is a filling one. It's also fun because favorite ingredients are added to create something unique. It's a chance to get creative with a simple container and just grains, proteins and veggies.

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Exotic Fare To Liven The Everyday

There's a condition known as the late winter doldrums. It usually  comes about after months of blah weather  and the cure is a trip to an exotic locale.(maybe not so much so if you live in the currently tropical NYC area) This can be expensive but there is a more inexpensive way of dong this. Cooking meals from faraway places. It's easy and fun, a great way of livening up everyday cooking.

This was evident in both Melissa Clark and Martha Rose Shulman's columns in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Ms. Clark's A Good Appetite takes home chefs to  Dakar, Senegal. She offers up black eyed pea fritters and Vietnamese inspired pickled carrots. The recipes come from the great Senegalese chef.Pierre Thiam, author of "Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes From the source To The Bowl." One of his signature dishes is accara, black eyed pea fritters. that are a popular street snack back home.It's similar to falafal in taste and flavor , usually served in a baguette. It's spiced up with a fiery sauce containing the six alarm Scotch Bonnet pepper.After rubbing off the skins, its a quick pulse in the food processor.Baking soda along with onions and a pinch of red pepper is added before it's rolled into balls and fried. He serves it with Vietnamese pickled carrots,a nod to his Vietnamese godfather,This again requires Scotch Bonnet peppers along with onion , serrano peppers and Vietnamese fish sauce. It's a spicy accompaniment that would be good for barbecues as well.

Martha Rose Shulman gives us a taste of the healthy exotic in her Recipes For Health column. Her trademark is delicious and good for you. Her recipe this week was taken from Lukas Volger , a well known vegetarian chef.His latest book "Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen Pho, Bibambap, Dumpling and Other One Dish Meals"gives us recipes for veggie filled dumplings and ramen soups. The recipe Ms. Shulman gives readers is for bibambap a  Korean mixed rice,Iis a layered meal that usually with beef however Chef Volger adds roasted vegetables to his. A good dose of butternut squash along with broccoli rabe and shiitake mushrooms are added as one of the layers. It is spiced up with gochuchang, the Korean fermented chile paste along or sambel oelek,a ground chili and seafood paste, depending upon your taste. Molasses and soy sauce are also mixed in to temper either sauces' fieriness.  The garnish provides the protein as well as more tradition. Usually a raw or sunnyside up egg  is added for the topping along with pickles. These can be home made as well using Kirby cucumber,in a rice wine brine.

Liven up those late winter culinary blahs witch exotic meals from faraway places. Try a Senegal accara or a healthy bimbambap .It's a fun trip for the palate.