cooking

Within the last few years, an industry has sprung up aimed at people who don’t know how to cook but yearn to do so. The basic model of such companies is that they deliver kits for making a homemade meal: the ingredients, with any pre-work like peeling or trimming already done, and a set of instructions that includes step by step photographs pretty enough to be in a food magazine.

I tried one of these services a year or two ago, lured by a good coupon deal, and did get some value out of it, but cancelled the subscription before they could start hitting me with the non-coupon costs. For someone utterly foreign to the idea of cooking, these might be useful to show how easy it is to create a tasty meal, or for someone scared of failure, they might build confidence. But the amount of wasteful packaging was striking, and that seems a bad thing to me. I don’t like creating garbage, because among other things, it means I must expend effort taking it out, but also because it’s bad for the planet.

The average American generates 4.3 pounds of garbage per day. That’s over a pound and a half over what the figure was in 1960. So we’ve gotten, overall, less efficient rather than more, while at the same time depending on resources that are diminishing.

Every one of the kits came in cardboard packaging around a styrofoam box with two large ice packs. I stuck a few of those ice packs away for re-use but there are only so many ice packs any household can use and they’re not recyclable because they’re filled with some sort of chemical solution. Every ingredient was packaged separately, down to tiny plastic bottles holding approximately a teaspoon of soy sauce. If I had weighed the garbage against the end result, I would have found the garbage far in excess of the end result.

I think people should know how to cook, because it’s a skill that helps them make their life better in a number of ways. I freely acknowledge that people with few resources will have a harder time cooking, yet be in a position where the practice would benefit them tremendously. Some low-cost appliances can be of much use here, like a rice cooker, hot plate, or toaster oven, but using those efficiently takes skill and knowledge. These kits aren’t going to teach people some important basics, such as how to shop economically/efficiently, how to store ingredients, or how to prepare food.

One of the things I’ve been doing this month is cooking more in an attempt to wean Chez Rambo away from a too heavy reliance on eating out. The other day I made us eggnog French toast for breakfast (take your basic French toast recipe and swap in eggnog for the milk, add a little cinnamon and fresh nutmeg) and with it, a hearty helping of fake bacon.

The bacon was…less than good. I took the leftover bits and figured I’d amp them up a bit to add to a bag of baby spinach and see what I could do, salad wise. I crumbled the bacon and cubed some stale bread, then sauteed all of it in a mixture of half butter, half hot chili oil (maybe a tablespoon of each) until they were brown, and ground some fresh pepper over them while I was doing that.

The baby spinach got dumped into a bowl and combined with some chopped up apples and some thinly sliced jicama. I tossed the mix with a dressing made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little yogurt, and a pinch of brown sugar, then added some quartered hardboiled eggs. Threw the crouton/bacon bit mix over the top and voila. Huge salad, devoured quickly. This actually might be the best salad I’ve ever made, so I’m sorry not to have been more precise about how I measured the ingredients. This is my new salad theory: some greenery (preferably spinach, because I love it), some reasonably crunchy vegetable, chopped fruit (try for tart rather than too sweet), and balsamic vinagrette. Spicy croutons optional.

Last night: fettucini with a vodka and smoked salmon sauce, another big spinach salad, and roasted acorn squash. Tonight? I’ve got a turkey breast thawing, with yet another salad, and sweet potatoes on the side.

As some readers know, I do like to cook. I’d mentioned this soup on Facebook and people wanted the recipe. It was an improvised soup, so I’m recreating it a bit. I christen it….Autumn Soup with dumplings.

Ingredients:
3-4 shallots, minced
2 T olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into inch size
3 c chicken broth
1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 can black-eyed peas or 2 cups frozen
2 T mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 T apple cider vinegar
fresh ground pepper

Dumplings:
1 c flour
2 T baking powder
1 T dried dill weed
1 T sugar
1 T butter
1/2 milk

Saute shallots in olive oil until brown around the edges. Throw in chicken chunks and sear for a few minutes. Add three cups chicken broth and rest of ingredients. Add enough water (2-3 cups) to make sure everything is submerged if needed. Cook at a low boil 45 minutes.

Meanwhile make dumplings:
Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter until mix is crumbly. Add milk. Dough will be sticky. Form into six equal sized balls, drop in soup. Cook covered for an additional fifteen minutes.