What are your expectations for egg foo yung? Chinese-American food is a cuisine held dear by all of us, I dare say. Today’s egg foo yung is simply a pan-fried egg pancake, whose batter is filled with crispy bean sprouts, celery, and scallions. Too easy, right? Serve your pancakes with a soy sauce-based brown sauce, and sandwich some sauteed asparagus between the pancakes, if you like. I adapted this recipe from the one in the April 2012 issue of Cuisine at Home.

Egg Foo Yung
Cuisine at Home, April 2012
Makes 14 pancakes

4 oz. small-curd cottage cheese
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup chopped bean sprouts
1/2 cup minced celery
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. grated Parmesan
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. minced scallions
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. soy sauce
Salt and black pepper
Canola oil
Steamed asparagus spears

Mash cottage cheese in a bowl. Stir in eggs, bean sprouts, celery, Parmesan, scallions and soy sauce; season with salt and pepper.

Heat a griddle or a nonstick skillet over medium-low; brush with oil.  Scoop 2 Tbsp. batter onto griddle and cook until light brown, 2-3 minutes per side; repeat with remaining batter. Garnish pancakes with steamed asparagus; serve with soy sauce.

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This recipe is a basic guideline for the quickest of weeknight dinners. The pancakes are light and pleasant, due to the inclusion of cottage cheese, perhaps? In a separate skillet, I went ahead and sauteed purple asparagus spears with bacon and Dijon mustard. These were delicious combined with my simple pancakes. We gobbled these, enthusiastically.

Another great/easy recipe is the “Roasted Sunchokes with Buttery Bagna Cuda,” from the April 2012 issue of Food and Wine. Have you embraced sunchokes into your lifestyle yet? With a texture like a firm fingerling potato, they are crunchy, sweet, and enticing. This recipe does not ask you to peel these awkward tubers, which could be cumbersome. These cook simply in a cast-iron pan.

I scaled back and used only 1 lb. sunchokes for this recipe (rather than 2 lbs.), but I kept the “sauce” ingredients as-is. This sauce is called a bagna cuda: a Piedmontese “hot dip sauce” of garlic/anchovies/olive oil. The snappy sunchokes were especially wonderful bathed in this oily/fishy/buttery/garlicky sauce. Wow. Surprise yourself with this one.

PRICES
Sunchokes (1 lb.) = $2.47

RECIPES: the egg pancake is a perfect fallback for dinner panic, and a sunchoke asks for so little to be beautiful
PREP TIMES: griddle an egg pancake in 6 minutes; roast sunchokes for 25 minutes
TASTES: is an egg pancake an ultimate comfort food? Fresh, warm, crispy veggies inside. And already-pleasant roasted sunchokes are coated in a mash of olive oil, anchovies, garlic, and butter.

Next time, my fun meal will be the “Spring Minestrone with Chicken Meatballs,” from the April 2012 issue of Bon Appetit, along with the “Roasted Cauliflower with Shallots and Golden Raisins,” from the March 2012 issue of Everyday Food. See my meal when you come back to my site soon.

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