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Chef Rossi – How to Cook In Pandemic Times

Chef Rossi – How to Cook In Pandemic Times

Chef Rossi Cooking in Corona Pandemic Times OMTimes

Chef Rossi of The Raging Skillet, a cutting-edge catering company known for breaking any and all rules, shares some tips for cooking during a pandemic.

Foodie Love in the Corona Pandemic Times

By Chef Rossi

 

 

“Help! All the restaurants are closed, and I don’t cook! What do I do?”

I have been hearing that a lot lately.

In these scary, sad times of the pandemic, not being able to cook seems like the least of our problems, but for many people, it is a frightening reality.

Here in New York City, there are endless eateries that offer delivery and take out. The food industry is suffering terribly, so yes, if you can afford to, PLEASE support them. But since NOW most of us are either out of work or working from home, or not exactly rolling in dough, why not use this time to do things we normally wouldn’t do? I’m not just talking about catching up on your favorite tv show (that too). Why not COOK?!

Not always so easy. Even for folks who do cook.

 

“Help! I went to the grocery store, and all they had left were squash and beans!”

Yeah, you might be running into the problem of not getting what you want in your local super-market. Especially toilet paper. (What’s that about? Save some for us!) But you can do a whole hellava lot with squash and beans.

Squash and bean soup for starters.

 

“We could only find ground turkey and carrots! What do you make with that?”

1) Turkey and carrot chili

2) Turkey tacos with carrot salsa

3) Turkey and carrot stir fry

4) Turkey and carrot Bolognese with macaroni.

5) Turkey and carrot shepherd’s pie. But don’t get me started.

6) Turkey kebabs with roasted carrot hummus.

 

“I can’t find any garlic or ginger, and I’m making curry! What do I do?”

Let’s be real here; we are trying to cook with what we’ve got or can get. For the garlic, substitute garlic salt for table salt. It won’t be as good as garlic, but it won’t be bad at all. For the ginger, toast allspice in a dry pan until you can smell it. I am reminded of freshly baked cookies when I do this. Use the toasted allspice instead of ginger. Works nicely for jerk seasoning, too.



I’m a wedding caterer. We rarely do events smaller than 100 guests, so you can imagine what business has been like for us since early March. I couldn’t do anything about losing our ENTIRE SPRING WEDDING SEASON!!! *&^%$#@*.

 

OK, OK, I promised myself I’d stop complaining; it doesn’t help. But I can cook.

I had 50 pounds of carrots and onions in my walk-in fridge, a boatload of items in the refrigerators and freezers, and no events on the horizon. I thought it was time for one of the two S’s — Suicide or Soup. I decided on soup. I invited over two of my most beloved gal, pal co-workers, and made soup. A lot of soup.

It was fun. Well, mostly, it was fun, because CC peeled the carrots and chopped the onions. Thanks, CC.

I cooked up huge vats of chicken soup, lentil soup, and carrot ginger soup. Toasted the soup with some fine bubbly and sent the gals home with as much soup as they could carry. My way of saying, “I know the world feels it’s ending, but have ten quarts of soup and four rolls of toilet paper.” Hey! It’s something.

What I learned living in downtown Manhattan after 911 was that doing something kind made you feel better and made everyone else feel better, too.

There are many people out there who are sick, some who are dying, most who are scared. I can’t do anything about that, but I can cook. I can help other people cook. I can give ideas for yummy feasts to prepare when ingredients you are used to getting just aren’t there.

I can give foodie love in Corona Pandemic Times.

Here are some cook-what-you-have recipes I put together for my two-ingredient depraved pals. Happy to come up with recipes and ideas for you too.

 

See Also

Also, Read The Pandemic Pantry in Quarantine Times

Food equals love

 

Squash and Bean soup

Soak a bag of dry beans in water overnight. You can use whatever kind of beans you got — white beans, navy beans, kidney beans, pinto beans. Float your boat, baby. You want your beans covered, probably twice as much water as beans. When ready to cook, drain the beans and set them aside.



Peel and chop one large yellow onion. Peel and mince a few cloves of garlic. Peel and chop three regular size carrots and chop three celery stalks. Sauté onion, carrot, and celery for five minutes, then throw in the garlic and sauté another few minutes. Throw in your beans and six coffee cups of vegetable broth if you don’t have vegetable broth use water with a cube of vegetable bouillon. If you don’t have that, use water and sing it a song. Season to your liking with ground cumin, ground oregano, ground thyme, ground coriander, paprika (I love Old Bay if you have it), salt, and ground pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower and simmer for an hour. Chop up three zucchini or yellow squash and three plum tomatoes. When your beans are soft, throw the tomatoes and squash into the soup. Cook another 10 to 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. When your zucchini is soft, your soup is done. You can garnish with grated parmesan if you like, but it’s good without it, too. If you don’t have any veg broth or bouillon, a spoon full of tomato paste jazzes things up nicely. It jazzes things up nicely, even if you do.

 

Turkey and Carrot Stir-fry

Peel and slice one whole onion and three carrots. Slice one red bell pepper and two scallions. Mince a few cloves of garlic, slice up a half a head of cabbage. The cabbage can be red or green. Heat a few drizzles of oil in a wok or deep skillet. Over medium heat, sauté a pound of ground turkey. Cook and stir. After a few minutes, toss in a good plop of minced garlic. When the turkey is done and starting to brown, remove meat from pan. Pour in a drizzle of oil and the stir fry the onion and the carrots. After five minutes, toss in bell pepper and cabbage and cook till cabbage is soft. Toss turkey back. Drizzle in Chef Rossi’s Handy Dandy Stir-fry Sauce. Cook and stir fry until combined. If you have frozen vegetables like broccoli, peas, corn, string beans, by all means, throw them in. They only need about five minutes to cook and get yummy.



 

Chef Rossi’s Handy Dandy Stir-fry Sauce

Equal amounts tamari and sesame oil with a plop of sugar, brown sugar or honey, and a good dash of Sriracha. I prefer to puree a plop of minced garlic and ginger into this, but it’s good as is.

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About Chef Rossi

Chef Rossi is the catering chef extraordinaire dubbed the “wildest thing this side of the Mason-Dixon Line” by Zagat. As the catering director, owner and executive chef of The Raging Skillet for the past 25 years, a cutting-edge catering company known for breaking any and all rules, she has earned a reputation as the person to call when you want to do something different. She is also the author of The Raging Skillet a memoir of her life with recipes and the subject of a play currently touring the country.  “I like to think of myself as the anti-chef,” says Rossi, “no pretension, no complicated recipes, just fun, fast and fabulous food.”
Learn more about her at http://www.theragingskillet.com




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