I've been doing a lot of thinking these past couple of days about what makes a recipe dirt cheap. It couldn't just be the cost of the ingredients, or the time it takes to put together (usually in inverse proportion). There had to be something more. The answer came to me yesterday morning when I pulled in to the gas station to fill up the car -- $57!! For a Honda Civic!! Wow. Those 40-mile round trippers to Whole Foods or the Asian market or Williams-Sonoma in search of a single ingredient or a new pot can really add up. (Let me go all caps here: You New York City dwellers are SO LUCKY to have public transportation!) Anyway, I turned around, went home, tore apart the pantry and dug deep into the fridge, and this is one of the things I came up with. I had the kelp and the bonita flakes for the dashi (very cheap) and the dried mushrooms (not so cheap, but they go a long way) from testing other recipes, and the ginger, scallions, carrots and cabbage were sitting in the crisper, looking lonely. OK, I had to get the tofu, but I walked to the store for that.

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