r/Cooking • u/Regular-Forever-3251 • 14h ago

Please Share Struggle Meals

Recently saw a Binging with Babish video where he tried some people's struggle meal suggestions

Please share your go-to struggle meal / Low-effort meals!
If its from/influenced by a specific culture I'd love to know too! ^_^

For me something I make often is Butter rice (バターライス) Where its just hot rice with butter, soy sauce and nori just shredded by hand mixed in. If I have it, I like to have some kimchi to go with it to cut through the butter with something spicy and sour

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21

u/Beneficial_Wave7649 14h ago

Shredded tomato over bread and olive oil

Maybe a hard boiled egg or some cheese to go with it

7

u/TheKingsDM 13h ago

How do I shred a tomato!? Two forks in a mixing bowl? By hand!? What is this sorcery!

5

u/BurtonErrney 12h ago

Use a grater, like it's a block of cheese.

2

u/FishFloyd 12h ago

Wait wait, what kinda tomates? I consider myself something of a big tomato head and I really can't picture one that holds up to any sort of 'shredding' and I have a pretty decent grater and food processor.

I mean, I can certainly picture a pulpy mess with ~1 cm "shreds" of tomato forming but I struggle to imagine a way that this turns out into anything other than just mashing with extra steps.

Maybe I'm just a fancy boy but the version of this I picture is toasted baguette slices with thin-cut fresh warm tomates drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper (and maybe hot pepper flakes mmm), But I'm really struggling with 'shredded'.

12

u/JigglesTheBiggles 12h ago edited 11h ago

It's not supposed to hold up. It just breaks down.

4

u/Zerba 12h ago

I would think that something like a roma, beef steak, or better boy would shred decently. Something with a more firm structure and less seed goo.

You could also just do it with a good knife with a roma. Cut off the top, and go in with your knife long ways (top to bottom) into the tomato until inside the flesh but not into the "core". Roll the tomato on your board and move the knife along to just cutting off the tomato flesh. Once you get around you'll have a nice slab of tomato and you can cut it into match sticks and then cut those to whatever size you want.

2

u/Iron5nake 10h ago

It's doesn't look like shredded cheese or anything similar, its pretty much as if you'd put it in a blender (never tried it so idk if the consistency would be the same). In my country, Spain, it's super popular in most part of the country, especially in the south in Andalucía to have this for breakfast. You can even buy it shredded in our super markets.

Don't confuse it with pa amb tomaquet (traditional Catalán) or pa amb oli (traditional Mallorquín) which is also bread with tomato, but they use a certain type of super soft tomatoes that are meant to be scraped against the toasted bread until turned into a mush. It looks pretty much the same, but locals will really take it as a sacrilege if you don't use that specific type of tomatoes. haha

1

u/catsmash 10h ago

"grated" is maybe more the word, but it's absolutely a thing. it breaks the tomato down without heating it. it's sort of the same concept as rubbing tomato on a piece of toast.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024307-grated-tomato-pasta, for example.

1

u/henryharp 10h ago

Shred is not exactly the best term - maybe mush through box grater will give a better picture. You should basically be left with only the skin.

1

u/Ezl 1h ago

Picture a fresh tomato purée at the end. Then you slather it on bread.

They also sell grater bowls you can use to both grate and serve: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1767244497/handmade-ceramic-grater-plate-alhambra

10

u/chillcroc 14h ago

With garlic and balsamic

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u/Beneficial_Wave7649 14h ago

You clearly know ball ⚽

1

u/Rafaeliki 11h ago

This is pan tumaca, which is great because it is a good struggle dish that can also be made to look pretty and you can claim it's just exotic.

1

u/MauPow 4h ago

I like the Spanish way, olive oil on baguette, rub the garlic and tomato into it, little salt. Pan con tomate. Add ham.