Sesame Broccoli in 8 minutes

Last night was another rushed night with only about 40 minutes to cook, eat and clean up after dinner. I'll be glad when the I Cantori concert is over on Sunday afternoon because there will be NO MORE REHEARSALS until the fall! Yeah! Anyway, I keep a few things on hand for those nights that I need a quick and easy dinner and am not in the mood for pasta, things such as fozen veggie burgers and frozen vegetables. For some reason, I was really longing for mashed potatoes, so I decided to spend my limited time on those. I called home just as I was leaving work to instruct dear daughter to peel all the potatoes in the pantry because you can NEVER have too much mashed potatoes! When I got home, the potatoes were peeled and all I had to do was to cut them up, put them in the pressure cooker, cover with water, and pressure cook them for about 6 minutes, and they were ready for mashing. While they were cooking, I put the burgers in the toaster oven, set the timer for 15 minutes and looked at the veggie situation. I really need to go shopping, so I let dd choose a bag of frozen veggies. Broccoli was chosen, and quite honestly, I don't remember when I bought it. To make matters worse, I think the flavor of frozen broccoli is kind of "off", so I can't imagine WHY I bought it since I don't like it. Anyway, I needed a way to make the frozen broccoli taste good, so this is what I came up with:

Sesame Broccoli

16 oz frozen broccoli, cooked till just tender (I nuke mine)
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
scant 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 - 2 Tbs low sodium soy sauce
scant 1 tsp of grated fresh ginger
few drops of hot sauce of your choice, to taste
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Dress the warm broccoli with everything else, and be prepared to defend your portion from your daughter. Man, was this good! I might even buy frozen broccoli again!

Notes: I used low sodium soy sauce because I got in the habit when my mother was alive, and I think it has better flavor. The toasted sesame oil is a pantry staple for me; it comes in a small bottle and is dark in color - the darker the color, the stronger the flavor. A little goes a long way, so taste a drop before you dump it on the broccoli. I've been known to use a teaspoon of sesame oil in my hummus when I've run out of tahini. I usually have fresh ginger in my vegetable drawer, and I always have a knob or two in my freezer as well, but if you find that your ginger goes bad before you use it, try the ginger paste in a jar. It keeps its flavor pretty well. I don't care much for the ginger in a tube because its adulterated with some other ingredients and isn't pure ginger which really cuts down on the intensity of the flavor. But if you seldom use ginger, go ahead and keep this in your fridge because it is an acceptable substitute - just remember that you have to use probably double the amount for the same flavor.

The frozen veggie burgers I used were a new flavor for us: Morningstar Farms Tomato and Basil Pizza Burgers which were quite tasty. I liked the flavor, though it really didn't go well with the chinese-style broccoli.

Maybe I should call this meal an Asian-Mediterranean fusion meal? Maybe this was haute cuisine and I didn't know it?

Nah.

DD gives this meal four stars - not bad for 25 minutes from start to finish!