This week, I created the following dishes:
* Pork chops, spicy couscous and corn
* Balsamic steak with roasted carrots and potatoes
* Pizza
* Chicken tacos
* Tortilla soup
* Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice and naan
* Pork chops with macaroni and cheese and broccoli
Recipes are available upon request.
(Photo by Damian Siwiaszczyk)
This week, I created the following dishes:
* Prime rib with mashed potatoes and salad
* Tonkatsu with sushi rice
* Tortilla soup
* Pork tenderloin with pomegranate glaze and a cauliflower gratin
* Chicken ramen soup
* Blood orange-glazed wild Alaskan sockeye salmon with brown butter gnocchi
* Steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus
* Blondies
Recipes are available upon request.
Let’s give it up for the bakers.
In the past, they created a wide variety of delectable desserts, all without the luxury of modern appliances. Often these treats would take days to complete — and only minutes to devour. It reminds me of how an author spends months or years writing a book and then fans read it in just a few days and immediately begin clamoring for more.
If you’ve ever made a loaf of bread, a batch of cinnamon rolls or a fruit pie from scratch, you know that baking is a labor of love. Using the right tools, these treats are fairly simple to create. Yet even with all of our technological conveniences, such desserts still take time. For example, on Saturday night, I baked a dutch apple pie. It took:
That’s right. More than four hours from start to finish. The end result was marvelous so it was clearly time well spent. But when it came time to eat, I made sure to thoroughly relish every bite.
(Photo by Marcus Weir.)
M and I went a little crazy at Green Mountain Orchards in Putney, Vt., this morning. We ate half a dozen delicious apple cider donuts, drank freshly pressed warm apple cider and brought home both a bushel of apples (we picked ourselves) and two monster-sized pumpkins (one was 31 pounds, the other 35 pounds).
I definitely see some baking in my future.
I love cooking. Baking, too, though I’m told by professional chefs that these are two very different skill-sets. The former involves creativity and experimentation, the latter is science and beauty. Yet to me, both activities are kitchen witchery.
There’s something magical about cooking and baking. You take ingredients from all parts of the planet, combine them skillfully, add heat or cold or motion — and ta da! A dish appears. You can transform the remnants of meat sticking to the bottom of a hot pan into a smooth and silky sauce. Combine cornstarch, vanilla, butter, sugar, eggs and milk in a pot and the concoction will transmogrify into a thick and delicious pudding. Pour heavy cream into a cold stainless steel bowl, whip it into shape and the liquid becomes a delectable, fluffy cloud.
Serving food to others is also an enchanting experience. Friends and family, why, they already adore you. But wake ’em up with the smell of freshly baked bread or cinnamon rolls, and love will fill their hearts. Hand ’em a mug of steaming tea or coffee or cocoa on an frigid winter’s day, and you’ll warm their bodies. Sit ’em down over a holiday table, and the food you serve will not only feed their stomachs, it’ll create traditions and memories.
The best part of edible alchemy occurs when no one is looking, for that’s when I revel in the secrets of cookery. Inside the kitchen, I make music out of banging pots and clinking silverware. I use the colors and shapes of ingredients to create art on a plate. With herbs, spices and salts, I intensify the flavors of food. And before any meal is served, I take a moment to enjoy the bit at the bottom: the gritty, chocolate brownie batter; the smooth, warm comfort of custard; the last dollop of creamy mashed potatoes still sticking to the wooden spoon. That tasty morsel is all mine.
(Photo by Humusak2. Used with permission.)
