Answers III
Mar. 3rd, 2007 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikMy kitchen taunts me... What's the trick to moving from "can cook a couple things" to "can cook enough to stay healthy"?
I don't think there is a single trick, but here are some tricks that have helped me:
Themes and Variations I think one of the difficult things about learning to cook is that there is such a common emphasis on recipes, as opposed to underlying techniques. Yet it has been my experience that the more you can extract the underlying themes, the more ease and versatility one has. Inherent in this is balancing the boldness to depart from the established path with a sense of how big a departure one is prepared to make.
I find it helpful to try and reduce familiar recipes down to a minimal description, which might be embroidered then at will. For instance, for a basic tomato sauce, one can saute an onion in olive oil until just turning transparent. To this add one can diced tomatoes, one can tomato paste, and the tomato paste can of water. Simmer until thick, salt to taste. That's the theme (I'm deliberately using canned rather than fresh ingredients here). The variations are all the things that make it interesting. One day you can add crushed garlic, chopped zucchini, carrots, green beans and a handful of chickpeas, and maybe a glass of wine instead of the water. A few minutes before serving, add a handful of coarsely chopped basil. Another time add capers and pine nuts and a chopped sweet red pepper (this works well with calamari, but you need to simmer it a long time, or the calamari will be tough). Another time brown lamb with the onion (if you happen to eat meat) and add garlic, fennel seeds and spicey red pepper. Oo, or black olives, fennel bulb, and pine nutes (and garlic... okay, unless I'm cooking for J I generally use garlic in these things.)
Or, on another theme, Cheesecake is basically a soft cheese (we'll say cream cheese, though a high moisture ricotta or even a chevre can be employed) that is mixed with sugar, eggs, and often something like cream or sour cream to make it a little less thick, which is then baked in a slowish moist oven until set. And then cooled before serving. But from this foundation, a bazillion cheesecakes can be made.
Keeping it Simple If you're trying to cook the majority of your meals, unless you have a lot of time on your hands it's important not to get bogged down in complicated preparations. So work on getting some basic things that you can prepare quickly, and that you like. I'm perfectly happy, for instance, to steam most vegetables and eat them with a little lemon and sea salt. I can make the simplest egg fried rice, or cous cous pilaf in just a couple of minutes. It's nothing fancy, but I like it, and it keeps body and soul together. There's also a lot to be said for making things that can be reheated later. One day I might make a risoto, which I eat with leftover lentil soup, and a quickie salad. The next I might have the leftover risoto and grill myself some fish. I make bread one a week, and make meals or snacks of bread and hummus and tomatoes, or bread and caponata all the time.
Plain workaday cooking is a wonderful thing. And I think it's easy to get distracted by glossy food porn, and tricked into thinking a lot more effort needs to go into things than is in fact the case. Also, there are a lot of recipes around that are simply more complicated and finicky than they need to be.
Inspirational Reading This is a tricky one, because it's easy to be seduced by complicated show-offy food. (Which is a fine thing in its own time and place.) But keeping an eye open to for interesting ideas never hurts, and there are some books that concentrate more on technique than recipes. The Joy of Cooking is really great to have around if you have any interest in American cooking at all. I rarely use the recipes (actually, I very rarely cook from recipes at all) but the discussion sections are great -- all the basics of everything from how to make broth to how to dress a wild boar. People don't generally realize how much cool stuff is in there. I think my all time favorite book about cooking is MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, which is all about surviving war time (or other) shortages with grace and pleasure. But there's a lot out there. I generally find that cook books are a bother and slow me down in the kitchen, but they make great casual reading.
What's a good recipe for root salad?
Any roots in particular? My favorite one that comes to mind is very simple:
Take a bunch of beets. Roast them. Slip them out of their skins, chop into bite sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
I tend to roast the roots in this sort of thing, but that might be in part an artifact of having lived for many years with the brick oven. Carrots, parsnips, onions, jerusalem artichokes and beets respond well to that. Turnips probably do too, though I haven't tried them. I usually like bright, acidic dressing to contrast with the earthy tones of the roots. Lemon juice is probably my favorite, but vinegars could work. Hmm... a little ginger could go well in either base... or finely chopped lemongrass and a little mint, or horseradish. Oh, now I'm hungry.
What is the most important thing?
Goodness, I thought I was starting to sound pompous in the previous replies...
I think I shall be somewhat tautological, and say that it is find one's own sense of meaning. I don't believe that there is anything like absolute or objective importance, just as there is not absolute or objective meaning. Importance, like meaning, is something that we create. And therefore at the end we must find answers to these things ourselves.
That all having been said, one of the things that is interesting about meaning is that not only do we create it, but having found meaning in something we can describe it, and if we do a good enough job, and strike some kind of chord in other people, we can pass it around among ourselves, whether by means of art, persuasion or formulae. I don't think that meaning, being subjective, is somehow weak or worthless. And it can become something of a collective endevour. But even then it is not absolute.
Should I sell all of my books and move onto a boat?
I think the moving onto a boat sounds like a splendid idea, and it has worked very well for me. I don't know if you should sell your books or not. (Or the other, of course.) I've been cheerfully divesting myself of many of my worldly possessions, and I think there's a lot to be said for travelling lightly. But books are also very cool. Also, some boats are large, and/or cunningly arranged in terms of book storage. So the former might not require the latter (unless perhaps as a fund raiser?) Oh, my heavens, the palace of a house barge owned by my new neighbor...!
I don't think there is a single trick, but here are some tricks that have helped me:
Themes and Variations I think one of the difficult things about learning to cook is that there is such a common emphasis on recipes, as opposed to underlying techniques. Yet it has been my experience that the more you can extract the underlying themes, the more ease and versatility one has. Inherent in this is balancing the boldness to depart from the established path with a sense of how big a departure one is prepared to make.
I find it helpful to try and reduce familiar recipes down to a minimal description, which might be embroidered then at will. For instance, for a basic tomato sauce, one can saute an onion in olive oil until just turning transparent. To this add one can diced tomatoes, one can tomato paste, and the tomato paste can of water. Simmer until thick, salt to taste. That's the theme (I'm deliberately using canned rather than fresh ingredients here). The variations are all the things that make it interesting. One day you can add crushed garlic, chopped zucchini, carrots, green beans and a handful of chickpeas, and maybe a glass of wine instead of the water. A few minutes before serving, add a handful of coarsely chopped basil. Another time add capers and pine nuts and a chopped sweet red pepper (this works well with calamari, but you need to simmer it a long time, or the calamari will be tough). Another time brown lamb with the onion (if you happen to eat meat) and add garlic, fennel seeds and spicey red pepper. Oo, or black olives, fennel bulb, and pine nutes (and garlic... okay, unless I'm cooking for J I generally use garlic in these things.)
Or, on another theme, Cheesecake is basically a soft cheese (we'll say cream cheese, though a high moisture ricotta or even a chevre can be employed) that is mixed with sugar, eggs, and often something like cream or sour cream to make it a little less thick, which is then baked in a slowish moist oven until set. And then cooled before serving. But from this foundation, a bazillion cheesecakes can be made.
Keeping it Simple If you're trying to cook the majority of your meals, unless you have a lot of time on your hands it's important not to get bogged down in complicated preparations. So work on getting some basic things that you can prepare quickly, and that you like. I'm perfectly happy, for instance, to steam most vegetables and eat them with a little lemon and sea salt. I can make the simplest egg fried rice, or cous cous pilaf in just a couple of minutes. It's nothing fancy, but I like it, and it keeps body and soul together. There's also a lot to be said for making things that can be reheated later. One day I might make a risoto, which I eat with leftover lentil soup, and a quickie salad. The next I might have the leftover risoto and grill myself some fish. I make bread one a week, and make meals or snacks of bread and hummus and tomatoes, or bread and caponata all the time.
Plain workaday cooking is a wonderful thing. And I think it's easy to get distracted by glossy food porn, and tricked into thinking a lot more effort needs to go into things than is in fact the case. Also, there are a lot of recipes around that are simply more complicated and finicky than they need to be.
Inspirational Reading This is a tricky one, because it's easy to be seduced by complicated show-offy food. (Which is a fine thing in its own time and place.) But keeping an eye open to for interesting ideas never hurts, and there are some books that concentrate more on technique than recipes. The Joy of Cooking is really great to have around if you have any interest in American cooking at all. I rarely use the recipes (actually, I very rarely cook from recipes at all) but the discussion sections are great -- all the basics of everything from how to make broth to how to dress a wild boar. People don't generally realize how much cool stuff is in there. I think my all time favorite book about cooking is MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, which is all about surviving war time (or other) shortages with grace and pleasure. But there's a lot out there. I generally find that cook books are a bother and slow me down in the kitchen, but they make great casual reading.
What's a good recipe for root salad?
Any roots in particular? My favorite one that comes to mind is very simple:
Take a bunch of beets. Roast them. Slip them out of their skins, chop into bite sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
I tend to roast the roots in this sort of thing, but that might be in part an artifact of having lived for many years with the brick oven. Carrots, parsnips, onions, jerusalem artichokes and beets respond well to that. Turnips probably do too, though I haven't tried them. I usually like bright, acidic dressing to contrast with the earthy tones of the roots. Lemon juice is probably my favorite, but vinegars could work. Hmm... a little ginger could go well in either base... or finely chopped lemongrass and a little mint, or horseradish. Oh, now I'm hungry.
What is the most important thing?
Goodness, I thought I was starting to sound pompous in the previous replies...
I think I shall be somewhat tautological, and say that it is find one's own sense of meaning. I don't believe that there is anything like absolute or objective importance, just as there is not absolute or objective meaning. Importance, like meaning, is something that we create. And therefore at the end we must find answers to these things ourselves.
That all having been said, one of the things that is interesting about meaning is that not only do we create it, but having found meaning in something we can describe it, and if we do a good enough job, and strike some kind of chord in other people, we can pass it around among ourselves, whether by means of art, persuasion or formulae. I don't think that meaning, being subjective, is somehow weak or worthless. And it can become something of a collective endevour. But even then it is not absolute.
Should I sell all of my books and move onto a boat?
I think the moving onto a boat sounds like a splendid idea, and it has worked very well for me. I don't know if you should sell your books or not. (Or the other, of course.) I've been cheerfully divesting myself of many of my worldly possessions, and I think there's a lot to be said for travelling lightly. But books are also very cool. Also, some boats are large, and/or cunningly arranged in terms of book storage. So the former might not require the latter (unless perhaps as a fund raiser?) Oh, my heavens, the palace of a house barge owned by my new neighbor...!
