Growing up amidst three square meals a day, we had a multitude of different meals. Breakfasts were always eggs (scrambled except the days they were softboiled) and Fridays, which were cereal. Lunches - at least into high school, were almost inevitably a sandwich of some kind (in the time before lunch tupperware, this was the way of the world), chips or crackers, apple, and a cookie. Dinner ran the gauntlet but mostly (that I recall) consisted of pasta, beef, or chicken.
But from this melange of 18 + years of meals, there are a few that stick with me even now. Meatloaf and baked red potatoes (both which were from my maternal grandmother and which we still make at the Toridhealbheach Beucail household to this day), spaghetti, waffles off a real waffle maker, and fried rice cakes.
I am sure that fried rice cakes are not really what they were (or are) called. It consisted of white rice which was left over from previous dinners, combined with egg (as a binder) and fried for breakfast. We had them with syrup (not the maple kind, which we never had growing up but rather the sugar syrup with maple flavoring, which we {again} still have to this day).
I cannot tell you what made these so memorable to me. Maybe it was the fact that they were rare (seldom do I recall us having leftover rice). Maybe it was because it was one of the few non pancake and waffle meals where loading something up with syrup was allowed. Maybe it was the texture (they are very different from anything else that I have eaten). But they continue to stand out my memory as a delicious memory.
The pictures you see above are my attempts from this weekend to make them. My recipe is not that original: add leftover rice (about three cups) and eggs (I eyeballed it and adding two), and mix together. As you can see, my sizing is all that good and my ability to judge how long to fry them got better as I cooked.
Having them this weekend, with my non-maple syrup maple syrup, I had a double helping of satisfaction. The first was that rather than having rice that ended up not being used, I was re-use it. The second was a reasonable approximation of a food I enjoyed growing up.
Good use of resources, good memories, good practices. All cleverly disguised in eggs and rice.
Never would I have thought of this on my own. Adding syrup to rice - genius ! I will have to try this on my own, but like you, ending up with spare rice is difficult in our household - we eat that up.
ReplyDeleteDuring the recent 'sick out', I found that a ramen package cooked and drained and combined with two fried eggs made a great meal. A little picante sauce on the side - delicious ! You can forego the spice package or use it - draining the liquid moves part of the excessive salt anyway.
I'm far from a chef, but really enjoyed that experiment.
Thanks. I suppose to me it is as much comfort food as it is a delicious use of leftovers.
DeleteThe Ramen with eggs sounds good! It reminds me of Oyakodonburi, a Japanese dish of buckwheat noodles with soup, an egg, and chicken in.
Thanks for stopping by!
Mom used to make strawberry cake for my birthday. I hadn't tasted one in 30 plus years. My daughter figured out her recipe and made one for me a couple years ago. I choke up. I felt like a kid again. Like that scene in Ratatouille.
ReplyDeleteI made bread and butter pickles with the wrong type cucumbers, but they turned out good anyway. Just like the ones mom and I canned. Another choke moment.
Something about the memories of youth as my hair turns grey and then turns loose....
STxAR, funny how sometimes food has a way - like music or scents - of instantly taking us back to a time and place.
DeleteFunny thing - it is amazing to me how often you can bend the rules with cooking or food preparation and things still turn out tasty, although perhaps a little different!