cooking

Cocinando en tu cuarto? Dale

Whitehorn’s book rescued me as it did thousands, probably millions of others. She knew just what people like me wanted: “Cooking to Stay Alive,” the first part, and “Cooking to Impress,” the second. No escaping cooking to stay alive because restaurants were few and far between in the 60s and too expensive for anything but a very special occasion.

Source: Cooking in a Bedsitter – Rachel Laudan

Ojalá hubiese tenido este libro durante mis años rebotando en Mexico.

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Sometimes I can cook things

In an effort to be more social I am going to be cooking once a week for my friend Trista. This past weekend we tried it out for the first time and other than some hiccups with the shopping, everything turned out pretty awesome. I did all of the cooking while she just… hung out in the kitchen while I did my thing.

I wasn’t exactly willing to just wing it, as is my wont. I actually did my homework and perused my current favorite source of recipes: Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine. This yielded two recipes:

  • Indian-Spiced Spinach with Tomatoes and Dill
  • Cape Malay Chicken Curry

Now, because of Trista’s dietary restrictions I did have to alter the curry recipe and took out the chicken, adding more of everything else because curry is good even without meat in it.

The spinach with tomatoes and dill ended up looking like this:

Indian-Spiced Spinach with Tomatoes and Dill

It was fucking delicious. Next time I make it I’m going to get some salmon to go with it.

As for the curry,

Cape Malay Vegetarian Curry

The mint garnish was the best part.

And… no, I’m not going to post the recipes. You can probably find something better Somewhere Out in the Internet, or go purchase a subscription to Milk Magazine, it’s worth it.

Next week I’m going to do shakshuka cos I’m working later in the evening, so we’ll have to get together in the morning to get this going. I should do Bloody Marys too, omfgatos!

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It’s more fun to yell at people anyway

A nicely set table, fresh flowers, candles, and music are well and good, but if you have to look at a heap of pots and pans while you’re eating, that special effort you’ve put into dinner into is lost. Guess what? Close the door. Problem solved.

from Why I Will Never Switch to an Open Kitchen

The author raises a very good point, and this is one of the reasons why people just love to go out for dinner. You don’t have to worry about buying the ingredients, prepping them, cooking them, and then washing those dishes to be put away at some later time.

Hell, I like to cook and I felt tired from just writing that. So people go out for dinner.

Another benefit of an enclosed kitchen: When you burn something — which you will if you cook for long enough — you don’t risk having the entire studio/apartment fill up with smoke and then smelling weird for days, possibly weeks.

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We have to keep both sides on the line

Here’s a great read from a chef: Where Are All the Women Chefs? | The Feed

The loving, nurturing side of the trade, the instinctive side—and, I would say, the feminine side—is being forgotten.

Here in Minneapolis a few months ago the Mpls St Paul magazine ran a front page article about the 12 best restaurants in the state and the chefs who run them.

Except all of them were male:

The Best Restaurants
Mpls St. Paul Magazine cover

Obviously, people were not happy. It even brought about a non-apology from the magazine. And these are just the top results from a cursory search.

For cooking to retain its soul, we need both men and women to be in the kitchen. And wh

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On cooking

Baking is science, but cooking is like sex.

What worked one time might not get you where you want it the next time. You use your experience to adjust, tweak & finesse. When you get it right you just know.

Sometimes you need things to be hot, hard and fast, sometimes you need it gentle and slow and easy.

It takes a lot of passion, and dedication, and patience.

When people like what you do, they tend to moan, and say "oh my god" a lot, and their eyes roll back in their heads. (that’s the best!)

All the comments in this thread are golden.

Via Things you have to explain to people who haven't worked in kitchens : KitchenConfidential.

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What Can Men Do?

If you’re reading this, there’s about an 80% chance that you’re a man. So after you give me the secret man club handshake, let’s talk about what we men can do, right now, today, to make programming a more welcoming profession for women.

http://blog.codinghorror.com/what-can-men-do/

Also applies to the service industry, particularly in the kitchen. I’m not the only one who thinks this way (there are too many places you can find that. If you work in the service industry, you’ll know where to look.)

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