Ah, one-pan dishes. What could be quicker? What could be easier? Easy prep, little cleanup, chop, fry, stir, flip, season..

..done.

Taking a page from the Chinese tradition, however, I’ve found that sometimes it pays to keep things separate. Say you’re eating some workaday tofu scramble. You’ve got your onions, your peppers, your tofu, your tomatoes, mushrooms, seasonings ad infinitum. All of the veggies are fairly happy to lap up whatever cooking juices and seasonings you throw at them, so your yummy glaze permeates them all, and what’s more- their own juices also commingle like drunken coeds at a keg party.

What’s the fuss, eh? Flavors marry, seasoning spreads, the love is felt. You cry silent tears of jubilation.

But what if you took a bite of tofu and had a lemon-ginger explosion in your mouth, then you followed it up with a craftily-speared little stack of peppers and mushrooms and took a roasted chili-dill hit? When you least expect it, that fallen bit of onion that you guiltily ate right off the table conjured cumin-soaked spasms of…

Ok, yes, I’m taking this a bit far, but multidimensionality is something I love in my food, and it’s not all that difficult to come by, if you’re crafty.

I hereby command thee to make this scramble next Saturday morning. If you like it, feel free to drop a comment!
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Filed under: Recipes, Technique
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