Lazy Saturday, no cooking required until at least tomorrow, stocked up on Bionicle Bean Soup as we are. This gives me a small breather, a little time to think, clean out the refrigerator, and gear up for the week ahead.
The week ahead promises to be influenced by a new book: The Minimalist Cooks at Home by Mark Bittman, subtitled: Recipes That Give You More Flavor from Fewer Ingredients in Less Time.
I'm for that.
Well, time doesn't bother me so much. I'm here all day anyway. But the idea of fewer ingredients definitely appeals to me, simply because that means less shopping, less fussing and the possibility that I may have all I need on hand at any given moment.
I always read the introduction to cookbooks. If I'm going to put my trust in a book, I like to know where the author is coming from. When I read this sentence, I was won over (I'm easy):
A disproportionate amount of space and time in food magazines, newspapers, cookbooks, and television shows is devoted to needlessly and sometimes outrageously complex recipes.
Complexity is alright, I guess, if you're feeling ambitious, or pretentious, if you want to impress someone or turn the entire weekend into a little culinary adventure. But that's not what I'm after at this stage in my life, a stage which requires me to push up my shirtsleeves on a daily basis. (Okay, the soufflé was a little complex, but only because I'd never made one before.)
Bittman says the key to enjoying cooking is embracing simplicity. I think that's true, if you're trying to enjoy everyday, home cooking. Blogging helps me enjoy what I do (because even if I happen to have a bad experience in the kitchen, I know I'll have the pleasure of complaining about it later), but blogging alone is not enough.
If you recall, I'd put off the idea of making osso bucco this month because January was a bit excessive and I just wanted to lighten the workload and calorie load here in February.
It surprised me, therefore, to see a recipe for Osso Bucco in The Minimalist Cooks at Home. Though Bittman doesn't mention the calorie load (that's my problem), his recipe makes the workload look surprisingly easy. I'm going to compare Bittman's recipe to the one found in my Cuisine at Home and see which one comes out the winner.
So Osso Bucco is back on the February docket.
While I wait for the veal shanks to arrive, I'm going to continue to try to add a few good soups to the repertoire. Lemongrass-Ginger Soup with Mushrooms sounds nummily exotic--and happy coincidence: for the first time this week I saw lemongrass in the produce section of my neighborhood market.
Red Wing is on the cusp! (How does your city rate?) Thanks, Rayne.
1:21:03 PM 
|
