Good morning. Tell me why, I don’t like Mondays, Bob Geldof wrote so many years ago, and the mournful sentiment echoes around the kombucha station at work to this day. People aren’t looking forward to cooking at the top of the week, to salmon in parchment or a layered vegetable torte. They want simplicity, ease, a balm after the harsh return to reality after (maybe) a weekend of pleasure.
Maybe that’s you? (It’s not me! I’ve been on the road for days, eating supermarket fried chicken and navel oranges, gas-station Colby Jack, pork rinds and spearmint gum.) If so, Melissa Clark is here with her latest recipe, for bacon fried rice with cabbage (above). It’s a simple, hearty meal that uses just a little bit of bacon and two forms of cabbage — one wilted, one pickled — to deliver a lot of flavor. And the texture’s incredible thanks to Melissa’s use of a more patient form of stir-frying the rice than perhaps you’re used to, with more frying and less stirring. Give it a try tonight.
Or you could pick up a rotisserie chicken, make it into something fine. We’ve got a dozen good recipes that use those weeknight fail-safes, from enchiladas to soup.
You could make rice and beans, with canned beans and rice-cooker rice, squeeze lime juice and hot sauce over the top when you’re done, feel better about yourself than you may have thought possible, on this day, in this month, at this moment in history.
