best breakfast ever?

Do you like okra? I love it. W hates it. I got some at Ranch99 Market yesterday.

This morning I woke up starved for okra. So I washed some and let it drip almost dry. I soaked dried onions in water from the hot tap for 2 minutes.

Then I fried chopped garlic and the drained onion in 4 tsp. olive oil, added okra, turned up the heat, and sprinkled on smoked paprika. Tossing ingredients around the pan around prevents burning on high heat.

hurry hurry i'm hungry ...

In the meantime, I cooked some Asian "Oil noodles" (wheat, water, bit of oil) for 2 minutes. Drained them and put them in a bowl.

I lifted the cooked okra, caramelized onion, and garlic into the noodles and drizzled Bango (Indonesian kecup) on them, moving the ingredients around until everything was mixed.

Might have been my best breakfast ever. Mind you, I was hungry for okra! And fresh veges are a joyful thing to eat.

Rating: 5
Taste: savory, liked the rosy gold of paprika and the smokey flavor with the sweet-salty Bango, which is a thick soy sauce. Undercooking okra makes it pop open in the mouth without being slimy. Yum.
Calories: 400 (120 noodles; 150 oil; veges 130)
Time to prepare: 10 min.
Tea: Trader Joe's Earl Grey Teabag (sadly). Hit the spot.

Lovely fingerlings with raisins

W brings home some fingerling potatoes. The bag boasts a pesto recipe that has cheese. No no. I'm vegan, remember? I build the potatoes in salted water for 14 minutes after slicing the biggest ones in half lengthwise.

Meanwhile, I combine a tsp. of olive oil, a few dices of onion, and a knife-tip of minced garlic in a saucepan. The fragrance starts to fill the room as they saute... about 5 minutes on medium until the onion is translucent.

I've got some carrots, oranges, and raisins from a previous meal, so I add that to the onion mix and warm it for about 3 minutes.

I love my old Chinese strainer, that makes it easy to fish out potatoes when they're cooked. The steam rises off the hot potatoes.

Put everything together, stir, and serve. (No special plate today, just an everyday Royal Doulton Designs Parquet.)

The purple, red, and yellow potato skins burst open with every bite. The orange peel adds a hint of bitter along with tart and sour. The raisins and carrots add sweetness. Garlic, oranges, potatoes, onions. Who knew?

Rating: 4/5.
Taste: sweet, hearty, savory without being heavy.
Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Calories: 400 or less. The potatoes: 125; oil and onion, 175, carrots, oranges, raisins, maybe 100
Tea: black