Icarus's blog: "Hurts to watch."

I've already said it, but it bears repeating.

Get one good pan. One good pasta pot.

The world is your oyster.

...okay
TWO
good pans.

One for omelettes and nonstickery and medium heat sauce making, the other cast iron of course.

And two pots.
No frills Dutch oven and a pasta pot (because you can make a fuckload of soup/stew in a big'n and you can put the dutch in the oven, or use it for frying)

Uh anyway.

Today you will need one large skillet.

Because you have half an eggplant, and meticulously cut into long pasta-esque strands, or cubed.

Now

go to your refrigerator.

*blink blink*
OH!
You wanted specifics alright

you will need about 1 cup of raw meat.

a light flavored firm green vegetable.

about two tablespoons worth of an onion or one of his cousins

about half a teaspoon of savory spices

salt and pepper

about a tablespoon to half a cup of crumbly semifirm aged cheese (white dry are best)

half a cup to a cup of diced mushrooms

a tablespoon of a tomato product, sauce, paste, or diced sundried

diced olives are optional.

A full serving of cooked rice.

...

oh

and up to two cups of a broth/stock that compliments your meat.

*scratches his chin fuzz*

No seriously.

Mess that up, I dare you.

Sweat the aromatics in some fat
partial caramelization-
throw in the meat til its about medium rare to done (poultry you want done)
add the eggplant and cook til it starts getting a little clear and is warmed all the way through
add the cheese, add the spices
salt and pepper
pour on the liquid
let it come to a bubble
add the rice
stir in the rice til its warm and has let go of some starch to thicken (this is much much much faster if you are using fresh-cooked, but if you're using it out of the fridge, I'd throw it on right as the meat is ready)

dry cured meats, olives, more cheese, breadcrumbs or fresh herbs optional at this point.

The hardest part of this pseudo-rissotto is the knife work.

you can use any meat or just tofu and eggplant
you can use anything from parsley to asparagus to spinach stems or celery
you can use beef broth, chicken broth vegetable broth
red wine, white wine, cream, soy milk, goats milk
you can use onion, shallot, garlic, weird onions, scallions
you can use limburger, feta, or bleu cheese
you can use rissoto rice, glutenous rice, long grain, jasmine, brown
you can use thyme, rosemary, cumin, parsley, (but I'd stick to french or spanish flavors personally), tumeric, red pepper and cardemom

It's a curry, its a rissotto, its a fricase

NO!
It's dinner.

But here's my favorite thus far-

Chicken leg meat (partially cooked to get the stock)
half a shallot
2 small cloves of garlic
salt
pepper
fresh parsley
1/4 cup of feta
a bit of cubed pepporoni/chorizo
long grain rice
diced rehydrated sundried tomato
chicken broth (see above)

You'd better believe I'm using duck when I have it :D

Then I did

cubed eggplant, diced green bell pepper
white rice (much rather've had brown)
ground lamb
half a shallot
more chicken broth
cubed asparagus
a bit of tomato paste
salt pepper
thyme
diced calamata olives
1/8th cup of goat cheese

Can you dig it?
The method matters more than the grocery list.