Possible Epiphany
October 5, 2004
She’s going to try one of my recipes. And I’m scared.
What if she doesn’t understand and makes a dog’s breakfast of the thing. She might stop trying my recipes forever.
Although I have cooked since I was a child, I am new at writing recipes for other people. I am new at explaining cooking to people that have a different experience level or culinary background than I. What if I use too few words? Too many words are confusing. I don’t know if someone will understand, ‘the shoulders of the cabbage’, or not. I want to convey my enthusiasm for cooking but I know that folks that don’t make a sport of expanding their cooking repetoire also don’t have the sticktoitiveness of someone who does. (stick-to-it-ive-ness - it’s a real word).
I was thinking about this this morning, when she told me she had bought some ingredients to try the chalupsies when I realised, most cooking is taught by example. Most often you have seen and tasted the dish before you try to make it. You have watched it being prepared, seen the in-between stages. You build upon the techniques you learned at home when you try to copy something you have eaten in a restaurant or when you follow a recipe.
I learned how to cook because my father, who loves cooking, fried omelets every Saturday morning using daring combinations of food. My Aunties and Grams used to ‘practically’ compete with one another to see who could make the most delicious, most beautiful dinners. My Mom, a self-admitted non-cook, learned how to make her excellent tomato sauce based dishes from my Dad’s friend Campinella.
Reading a recipe, even with explicit imagery will not bring ease into the kitchen. Ease comes from practice, ease comes from enjoying every moment of touching, smelling and looking at the marvels of the food. Ease comes when folks hang out in the kitchen and start ‘yakkin’ (that has nothing to do with yaks or the ‘Y’ word). Like with anything, ease comes when you make ‘it’ your own.
debra at 10:11 | Comments (3) | post to del.icio.us
Changes
October 4, 2004
This recipe for Chalupsie has been hybridised to the hilt. Pronounce it however you like, it’s just Stuffed Cabbage or Chou Farci and up here in the Polar Circle we need hearty winter fare like this.
C H A N G E S :
It was my Gramma’s recipe from the ‘old country’, from HER mother, but Grams used minutemaid frozen lemon juice concentrate ? something the ‘old country’ never had. I dropped ‘that ingredient’ like a load of so much cement over Tchernobyl and replaced it with a spoonful of thai green curry paste plus every single part of a fresh lime.
Some other changes that I have made include fractalising the prep time from 2hrs to 20 minutes. Now instead of reminiscing about chalupsies we can actually eat them. I also replaced the old country hamburger helper and changed the kind of cabbage to one that can be denuded of its leaves in one fell swoop.
(Please read more… )
debra at 11:15 | Comments (6) | post to del.icio.us
Fashion Food
October 3, 2004
And indeed, what is UNfashionable about a fake black lacquer bowl filled with instant Tom Yum noodles? Especially if you recycle the fake lacquer bowl and use it again and again for your own stylish soup lunches.
I came across this product researching what I will do for my contribution to Museum N8. J.P. of Mediamatic has asked me to come up with something for the theme pret a porter. Unlikely that I’ll do something related to the noodles (because I’m leaning towards fruit leather) but I am amused by the product design.
(Please read more… )
debra at 12:04 | Comments (6) | post to del.icio.us
