Therapy (but not)
I've heard lots of people self medicate - drinks, shopping, drugs...I find cooking really therapeutic and calming. Much more productive, I think - and a big change from how stressed out I used to get at the end of class when it was time to present plates and my sauce was not reducing quickly enough. My parents are getting used to hearing "I had a bad night/day - I'm making dinner tonight". We don't have far to go to find the silver lining. There's something meditative about cooking when it's on your own schedule.
(FYI: although help in the kitchen is always appreciated, it does have to be help. This means that if you offer to help, get assigned a job (or several) but you disappear and don't do the thing you said you would do, you're not only not helping, you're being a pain in the ass because you're actually holding me up. Get out of the kitchen because you're messing up my happy mojo!)
Cooking for 6
I was feeling a little bit lazy earlier - not really wanting to cook (yes, really lazy but I had a good excuse - really...). The good thing about promising to cook for friends is that it's a way to keep from giving in to the lazy feeling.
Anyway - I have a recipe in my slow cooker cookbook which calls for sirloin. Yes, yes - some purists would say you use a crappy cut of meat for the chili since you cook it forever on low heat and you use the sirloin for steak. Steak is all well and good, but having tried this recipe with sirloin and with chuck steak, all I can say is that the sirloin one is better. Since I plan on feeding friends with very sensitive French palates and, most likely, my parents - I had to dial the heat factor back a bit. It's a 9-hour (read: overnight) cooking time so it should be fine by tomorrow morning. It will even have tomorrow to sit in the fridge and so the sitting in its juices which makes stews and other things so much better on the second day.
Anyway - dinner to be served with rice, salad and the chili with assorted toppings - cilantro (coriander), green onions (spring onions), sour cream and cheddar cheese if people want it. Not to mention fresh chili...a friend who happens to be a bit of a foodie / critic is going to give the chili a test run tomorrow - hopefully it will live up to his high standards.
Fusion food...
In the meantime, dinner for tonight - one of the chefs at the Cordon Bleu in London is not a big fan of "fusion cuisine", mainly because so many people seem to be confused about what it actually is. Keeping his prejudices in mind, my dinner was more like French technique, Cajun seasoning, Mexican pico de gallo and served like a Chinese sang choy bao / Korean ssam (food wrapped in lettuce). Back when the Atkins diet was such a big deal, I remember thinking it sounded kind of boring (lots of protein, no carbs, etc. etc.) but if they had had food like this, I might have actually tried it. The one day I thought about not eating carbs, I immediately started to crave pasta and lots of bread / sandwiches - interesting and uncharacteristic, seeing as how I don't really eat sandwiches or much bread. If you think about it, this is pretty friendly for most dietary restrictions: gluten free, sugar free, nut free, dairy free...
And now - back to the A-team and looking forward to a day of friends, dancing, food and fun tomorrow.
Until next time, happy weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment