Sardine and scallion rice bowl

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Sardine and scallion rice bowl

I'm so pooped from cooking all day last weekend, I made myself a 2-minute dinner now. And it was delicious! 

I think I saw this recipe on a TV some fifteen years ago as a recipe for bachelors. I suppose it's something you could make over a fire in a cave if one was so inclined. It's something I make occasionally when I'm too tired to do anything but don't want to eat junkish food and regret it later. It hits the spot. And if I drank beer, I'd say it would go well with beer. 

This is all you need:

a bowl of rice

1 tin of sardines in oil (not smoked or otherwise flavored!)

a bunch of chopped scallions (I like a lot of it - freshens up the dish)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Most of this I always have on hand; a tin of sardines doesn't take up much space on the shelf and I usually cook several cups of rice at a time and freeze it in cling wrap. Freezing cooked rice is better than keeping it days in the fridge; nuke it a minute or two and it's almost as good as new. 

The original recipe said a man could plop the sardines, can and all, onto the stove top. I wouldn't - because it's easier to clean a small frying pan than a stove top with oil all over it. Just dump everything into a small frying pan, all the oil included. 

Loosely separate the sardines with a fork or spoon if they are stuck together. Heat up the pan - and yes, oil will splatter a bit. Move the pan around a little bit, and flip over the sardines after a minute, to warm up the other side. 

In the meanwhile, warm up your rice (if cold or frozen) and dump the scallions on it. 

Now, dump the entire contents of the pan, sizzling hot oil and all, onto the scallions. The hot oil will make some of it wilt - good. Immediately pour a tablespoon of soy sauce over the whole thing. (I'd hesitate to use more because tinned sardines are often quite salty already.)

Dig in with a spoon or fork. 

And don't leave the splattered oil on the stove surface until the next day. A quick swipe with a sponge will take care of it now, but tomorrow you'll have to scrub.