Texan Magazine
By Matthew Harvey
Fall is coming. Leaves are changing color, the temperature is dropping, and then you wake up and realize you live in Texas. So, it’s still hot and dry, and any leaves on tress that are green will at some point fall off, and there’s not a lot of color change either.
But you’re not going to let that get you down, you want to cook, and you want to do it now. You made it through the cold of last winter, you made it through the sweltering heat that is summer, and you may have even done some cooking then too, but onward to the season we call fall.
It’s not quite time to break out all of the holiday cooking recipes, we’re not talking Thanksgiving, and no one brags about the wonderful Labor Day feasts they create for the family gathering to watch the start of football season, but there’s still time to cook.
But what to cook?
Let’s have some fun with side dishes. But this time, let’s do it a little differently. Go basic on the meat, let’s go simple on that. Why? Well, everyone makes that the star of the meal. The precise cooking methods, the intricate seasoning and the cooking temperatures are all a part of the main attraction.
But no one ever thinks about the sides.
I mean let’s be honest here for a minute. We’ve all just thought, I’ll open that can of green beans, or steam that bag of frozen veggies, and I’m done… right? Wrong! Let’s really dive in and show you how to make a complete meal so that folks might think, hey this person had some training and could do this professionally.
STARCHES
The first side I’d like to discuss is starches. What are starches? Well, we’re not here to get into a dictionary lecturing class. You don’t have the time, the patience, and do you really want me to dive into the science behind it? I didn’t think so either. Let’s just identify a few. Go ahead, shout ‘em right out!
OK, don’t really shout them out, you may be in a public place, and everyone is going to start looking at you. We don’t want that.
Three basics are corn, potatoes, and rice. Each one can be easy to make, easy to enjoy, but oftentimes, unless you’re getting something fancy in a bag, it just sits on the plate, not doing a whole lot.
CRISPY RICE
So how do we spice things up? Let’s start with the rice. Let’s make some crispy rice. It’s simple, and you don’t have to be a trained chef to do it.
First, start with cooking a batch of rice, any rice will do, white, brown, basmati, jasmine, long grain, short grain, wild rice, flavored rice, you name it, it’ll do. There are very easy ways to do this part.
Option 1, the old school method. Use 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice. Combine in a pot over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until it boils, then cover and set on low or simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes to allow the rice to soak up the water. If you want to fancy this part up, add a couple of pads of butter while the water is getting to a boil. A word of caution though, do not overfill the pot. It will boil over and that’s no good. The cleanup sucks. Anyway, after about 30 minutes, the rice is done. Set it aside to cool. Yep that’s right, we’re letting it cool.
Option 2, if you own a rice cooker, simply follow it’s instructions and let it cook the rice for you. Add in the water, any seasoning you want, and the rice, press the little lever down and let it make the rice for you. Once done, again, set it aside to cool.
Option 3, if you’re in a time crunch, don’t own a rice cooker, or like many, you burn rice to the point of no coming back, buy a bag of microwaveable rice and let, as I call it, Chef “Mike,” cook it for you. Again, set it aside to cool.
Ok, the rice is done, and it’s cooled, that was easy.
Show me something more fun you’re thinking. OK, fine here we go.
Get some green onion, or scallions depending on how they’re labeled at the grocery store. And for this we need FRESH, not dried.
Wash them, they’re dirty little things, then chop them up. Take off the roots at the bottom, we don’t need those, and chop up as much as you want out of a small bundle. I usually use about three quarters of the bundle.
Put the rice and the onion in a bowl and stir them together. Next, get a large pan, I’d recommend non-stick here. Add oil to the bottom of the pan. We’re not talking about a lot of oil here, just enough to coat the pan evenly, maybe about a quarter cup at most. Turn the heat on high and wait for the oil in the pan to simmer.
Once the oil is ready, pour the rice into the pan and press down with a spatula until it’s flat and let it cook for about 4 minutes. Once the 4 minutes have passed, use the spatula to flip the rice. If it starts breaking up, that’s ok. Don’t fret, just flip it all and let it cook a bit more. If it’s not golden brown, flip it again. Occasionally I will add sesame seeds as well to add more flavor and variety. Remove the pan from the heat, and there you have it, crispy rice.
You’ve upped your rice game and didn’t even think you could. Serve that with some grilled fish, chicken, or pork and really kick that meal up a notch.
CORN
Next on the list, let’s move on to corn. Corn can be an everyday staple, whether on the cob, or in a bag. But for most of us, we know we can boil it, or steam it, and then let people add their own butter or seasoning to it. But again, we’re here to step it up. We’re here to make people look at this as the best corn they’ve had out of your kitchen… ever.
For me, I like my corn on the cob grilled, not boiled or steamed. But, you’re thinking, it’s still hot, it’s 105 degrees and I don’t want to stand outside. You know what? That’s fine. I don’t either some days, so I have a cast iron grill pan I use inside. It works wonders and I can still do some grilling. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend it. So, let’s take our cob of corn and grill it.
Heat the grill pan to a medium heat. It’s cast iron so it’s going to hold heat well.
Coat the corn in butter, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic, and place it on the grill pan. Let it set and sizzle for a few minutes and slowly rotate to get all the sides evenly cooked. This doesn’t take long at all. When you see those lovely grill marks, turn it. You want the marks, but you don’t want to burn it. Now, if you’re someone who doesn’t want grill marks, but still wants to use your grill, or a grill pan if you don’t want to sweat outside, once you season the corn, wrap it in foil and allow the foil to act as a small oven to cook. You’ll still want to rotate or turn every few minutes, we want even cooking here. Also let me mention, if you are going to use foil, you want the shiny side pointed out, and not on the food. The shiny part can flake off and you don’t want to get that in what you’re cooking, so rule of thumb when using foil, ALWAYS KEEP THE SHINY SIDE OUT.
Now if you’re using canned or a bag of frozen corn, we can still have fun with this too beyond steaming or boiling. Let’s do a quick in the pan cook that will add flavor. Take the corn (drain it if you are using canned) and combine with BUTTER, SMOKED PAPRIKA , GARLIC, and SALT. Place a pan over medium heat and add in the seasoned corn. Now if it’s frozen, you’ll hear a sizzle, that’s ok. If you don’t want the sizzle of the frozen corn, thaw it first. Stir frequently and turn, we want even cooking here. This dish shouldn’t take more than 4 to 5 minutes at the right heat as we’re simply warming the corn kernels and allowing the flavors to evenly distribute to everything. Once it’s done, top with some fresh CHOPPED GREEN ONION and again, you’ve gone above to make a great side for any meal.
POTATOES
I can hear you thinking though, I’m a meat and potatoes person. I don’t want rice or corn, I want potatoes. Fine, we can upscale some potatoes. First, let’s start by doing something a little different. Next time you’re at the store look for MULTICOLORED FINGERLING POTATOES. Most stores, especially HEB, have these. Take the bag home, wash the potatoes, and dry them. Pierce the potatoes with a fork, then coat them in OIL, SALT, PEPPER, GARLIC, and ONION POWDER in a bowl. Place on a foil lined pan (come on, let’s do less dishes) shiny side down, and place into a 375-degree oven.
After about 15 minutes turn the potatoes over. After another 15 minutes check the potatoes to see if they’re done. You should be able to use a fork, and if the fork goes in and out with ease, then the potatoes are done. You’re ready to serve them up.
Another fun option to upscale potatoes is mashed potatoes. First start with washing and peeling the potatoes, cube them and put them in a pot to boil. To make sure they are boiled through, use a fork to pierce the potatoes. If they break apart, then remove them from the heat and drain.
Now, most mashed potatoes are just milk or cream, or butter and you’re done.
But we’re upscaling here.
Use MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE, SOUR CREAM, SALT, and PEPPER and combine with the potatoes.
You’re not going to cover the potatoes, so add everything but the milk first, then using a masher, or heavy-duty whisk, start whipping the potatoes. Slowly add in the milk until you get the desired consistency you want with them. Just like that, you’ve upscaled your mashed potatoes.
VEGGIES
GREEN BEANS
But starches aren’t enough, we need some vegetables too. Why? Well because we’re making a complete meal here. Let’s prepare some green beans. For this, we’re going to need FRESH GREEN BEANS. I prefer to use already cut fresh beans, it takes some of the prep time out, but if you want to, you can use uncut green beans. Simply wash the beans and cut the ends off the beans. Usually only just the ends of the beans. Add the beans into a medium sized pan with SALT, BUTTER, PEPPER, and MINCED GARLIC.
Cook on a medium heat until the beans are tender but not mush. There should be a little crunch left in them by the time you’re done. You can also use BROCCOLI if you’d rather use that instead of green beans.
CARROTS
Speaking of vegetables, let’s bring back a long-forgotten side that seems to be getting a bad rap. The carrot. For some reason, the carrot has been relegated to either a cold snack, or a complimentary addition to a salad. For a long time, the only time you’d see a carrot is in coins over cooked on the side, or small and added to a roast. OK the carrots with a roast are really good, but the point is, carrots have seemed to become a forgotten side. It’s time to change that. My favorite carrots to use, are RAINBOW CARROTS.
Take these, again wash them, peel them, and coat with SUNFLOWER SEED or OLIVE OIL, SALT, PEPPER and GARLIC. Place on a foil lined pan and place in a 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. The carrots should be soft. Remove from the oven and then get a pan and place over medium high heat or even use a grill pan. Place the carrots down on the pan for about 4 minutes. We’re doing this just long enough to get some marks or a seer on them. This is just to finish them, as they’ve already cooked in the oven, and it will add a nice texture to them beyond just mush. And just like that, you’ve elevated your side dish and brought back a long-forgotten vegetable back to the table.
Now as you noticed, I didn’t add in many measurements to this. For me, I season to taste. I don’t use a lot of exact measurements when cooking sides. I mean, let’s be real, we’re not using huge amounts to over season, so a pinch here or there is a good starting point. Everyone’s palates are different, so I don’t want to say, use exactly ½ tsp of this, or 1 tsp of that. Just use your best judgement.
Cooking, as I’ve always said, should be fun. Play around with it a bit. Using some of the above, you can uptick any meal. These can be really quick, but fun ways to add more flavor to and a little upscale to your meals for your family, friends, or just for yourself. You’ve earned the right to pamper yourself a little. So sit back, skewer some shrimp and grill them, bake some chicken, or pork, and while they are cooking, have fun with those sides.
Show people what you’re made of by making a complete meal full of flavor and style.
