While I'm here, I should show the lentils I sprouted, as well as the riff on okonomiyaki I did with them. Is is really okonomiyaki if I just put stuff into a pancake, and ate it with Worchestershire sauce on top - without the genuine soup and other such? Yes, I know I'm taking liberties - so, feel free to see Just Hungry's more comprehensive recipe here. But if you are lazy like me and want to just have a whiff of that Osaka sensibility with minimal work....read on!!! (Instead of "lazy" you can always use the word "busy" - works just as well!)

Sprouted Lentils, in a Colander

How to Sprout Lentils

It's pretty easy. Soak 1 cup of lentils overnight. The next day, rinse and drain. Then loosely wrap the lentils in a few layers of paper towels (or I guess cheesecloth would work too). Leave the wrapped parcel in a shallow bowl. Check on it everyday - keep the lentils slightly wet by dripping enough water. Mine were "done" in about 5 days. Makes 5 cups of sprouts.

Pancake Mix

Lentil Sprouts with Pancake Mix

Okonomiyaki in the Making!

Slice of Okonomiyaki, plated (pre-Worchestershire Sauce)

Slackerrific Impromptu Okonomiyaki

• 5 cups of sprouts; (from 1 cup of dried brown lentils = 1/4 lb = about 20 cents)
• 1 cup of soy milk; (about 50 cents)
• 1/2 cup of prepared pancake mix; (I think this was still too much batter - likely better to just use about 1/4 cup);
• 1 egg; (about 16 - 18 cents)
• Worchestershire sauce to taste.

Wash and dry those sprouts. Because you have been watching over them as vigilantly as hawk, you will have very few "bad" sprouts - rotten / dry / etc. Pick through and discard. Mix the soy milk, pancake mix, and egg into a very large mixing bowl. Mix. Add the sprouts Fold them in. If you have other good stuff, this is the time to throw it in - I think shredded cabbage would be great here too. Heat up a skillet. You can do what I did - made a huge one - or make a few smaller ones. Totally up to you.



Pour the mixture into the pan according to the size you desire. The sprouts will wilt a bit. Check the bottom of the okonomiyaki by slipping the spatula underneath - what color is it? Golden brown? Time to flip it! Flip it. Then do the same check. Eat immediately! Slosh generously with Worchestershire sauce. Makes three - four servings. Takes less than 1/2 hr.

Next time, I'll use less batter, and will add more more more stuff, like maybe some protein (tofu / chicken / etc.) How did it taste? Well, you can definitely enjoy the sprouts - earthy, not quite crunchy, yet offering some small resistance to one's teeth. My diners gave it big, big thumbs up! I liked it. Well, maybe because it was breakfasty. Also, anything that gets browned in a skillet with starch is likely to win my heart. (like those jack mackerel cakes! and that spinach frittata!) I think the lentils plus the soy milk makes it very very filling and satisfying.

And now, I'll include here a totally gratuitous picture of Watermelon Kanten. Yeah, it's good. Why? Because you have that almost-crunchy resistence of the watermelon flesh, then the give of the kanten. Ok! I'm back on blog-cation now!

Watermelon Kanten

* Right now, this blog has over 19,000 views, and I expect it to reach views 20,000 in a few days, since it's averaging about 2000 ~ 2500 views/month. (And I remember when I used to get 180 views per month!!! - and it still boggled my mind that anyone would read this blog back then! I don't even force my dearest friends and family to read it!) Thank you so much for reading!!!

Update: one of my dear kin tells me that my enthusiasm for the number of views I've gotten is a bit impassioned, to the degree of causing laughter on her part. Surely you cannot take me too seriously! Doesn't everybody remember Sally Fields's 1985 Oscar acceptance speech?

I have something to confess. For someone who co-authors a blog about eating well and cooking creatively with limited funds, I am terrible at limiting my grocery budget. I do not cook based on what I have and need to use up - but instead tend to prepare whatever strikes my fancy, purchasing whatever ingredients are necessary along the way. Now, this doesn't include sushi, pheasant or sirloin steaks. ... but I do try to purchase organic meat and dairy whenever possible, and unless times are really tight, it's one aspect of my spending that tends to be relatively unbridled.

But every good era comes to an end - and as the London School of Economics has been sending me threatening notices about paying my tuition and I must heed them, I currently have less than £50 to last me till the month's end. Luckily, starting tomorrow work is sending me to Manchester for five days (allowing me to save money AND eat well - stay tuned for restaurant updates!), but until then I have pledged not to buy a single thing from the grocery store, having ascertained that I have more than sufficient stocks to last between now and then.

However, this means I couldn't make dak galbi for dinner yesterday as I desperately craved, and if I want spaghetti carbonara tonight, it'll have to be without parsley. To describe this situation as unsatisfactory would be an insult to descriptions everywhere - to cook with what I have seems to be contrary to my whole nature!

But, as I said, last night I persevered and took inventory: one frozen pack of ground beef, three bell peppers, one zucchini (courgette), 10 cherry tomatoes, one carrot, four stalks celery, a tiny piece of cheddar and some clamato juice. And of course, I already possessed plenty of spices and regular carbohydrate staples such as pasta, rice and couscous to supplement these perishables.

I decided on stuffed peppers with couscous and ground beef, with a stuffed zucchini thrown in for fun. I would substitute tinned tomatoes for fresh, throw in a bit of onion, garlic, cumin, mint and cinnamon to give it some Middle Eastern zip and round out a tomato sauce with whatever tomato-based sauces and beverages I could find.

In this case, that meant clamato juice mixed with ketchup and tomato paste, with a bit of water thrown in (definitely not my finest hour). Since this mixed up to be a pretty salty bowl of surprisingly tasty preserved tomato-ness, I went easy on the salt when seasoning the ground beef and couscous mixture going into the peppers.

I wouldn’t call the results one of my finest culinary creations, but perhaps that’s just because I didn’t want to eat stuffed peppers that day. … I just had to. What I did like about the recipe was that it was relatively all-encapsulating. In one small stuffed pepper, I got carbs, protein, veggies and dairy in an easy to eat container – it was like a food of the future.

Couscous-Stuffed Peppers with Beef

400 g ground beef

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

10 or so cherry tomatoes, halved

2 tbsp tomato paste

3 bell peppers, cored and cut in half

1 zucchini, cut in half with flesh scooped out and reserved

1 tbsp cumin

1/2 tsp mint

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup couscous

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

For the Sauce

125 ml Clamato juice (or Tomato)

3 tbsp tomato chili sauce

3 tbsp tomato paste

2-3 tbsp water (optional)

Directions 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. In a skillet, heat olive oil fry ground beef with the garlic and onion. When browned, add salt and cherry tomatoes and fry until tender. Add the finely chopped zucchini pulp, then spices, tomato paste and couscous. If necessary, add water to moisten. Cover and wait 15 minutess, or until couscous is light and fluffy.

In the meantime, boil a pot of water. Blanch peppers in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to soften slightly before placing them in tinfoil-lined baking dish with the 2 zucchini halves. Add couscous mixture to the peppers.

In a bowl, mix the sauce ingredients and season to taste with pepper and salt. Pour sauce over the peppers and zucchini and sprinkle grated cheese over the stuffed vegetables. Cover with tinfoil and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is nice and crispy.