Gastronomad

In 2009, Michael Pollan wrote an article that pissed me off. It was called Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, and was essentially about how nobody knows how to cook anymore, and soon cooking from scratch would be a quaint notion that rivalled quilting and dying of polio.

The article made me mad because of the notion that not only is “from-scratch” cooking on the decline, that it would be impossible for anyone to do that today.

So, I did it. Cara and I spent a month eating only that which we cooked ourselves - from a single ingredient in its purest form. Things that required extremely specialized equipment or ingredients that were impossible to come by, such as oil, were excepted, but for the most part, we were monastic about our single-ingredient rule. We made our own butter, our own condiments, our own bread - everything.

It was a nightmare. We ate, on average, at about 10pm, and were up until midnight or so doing dishes. By the end of the month, I was cranky and wanted nothing more than to have someone else make me a meal - but we pressed on and did it.

The next year, we decided to do it again, but for some reason, there were a lot more exceptions - it was much less hardcore than the previous year, but it was still mainly from scratch, and mainly from single ingredients in their purest form.

The thing about it is that after we spent so much time cooking from scratch, making things we never considered making before, like crackers, tortillas, pitas, etc. it seemed silly to ever buy them again. Ours were better, and better for us.

We eventually got really good at cooking for ourselves. We both improved our skills dramatically - Cara with baking and me with cooking.

This August, we’re doing it again. We’re going back to the rules of the first year, making fewer exceptions and planning better. I work in an office (as opposed to at home, as I used to) so we have to plan bagged lunches. We have to plan dinner, snacks, condiments and everything else. We mill our own flour.

To begin the month, we’ve brined two chickens and are grilling them on the Big Green Egg so that we always have an easy, healthy protein available. We’re making pulled pork tomorrow as a more decadent prepared meat to have on hand when we want something easy and tasty. We’ve got plans for duck that I’m extremely excited about. 

So, to make up for my lack of posting over the past year, I’m going to try to catalogue our month of abstinence from convenience, and maybe post a few recipes here and there.

Now, I get the whole “I’m busy” argument for not cooking.  I run a business, volunteer quite a bit, and am involved in a lot of things outside of word, so sometimes, at the end of the day, I realize that it’s easier to order pizza than make a meal.

The thing I don’t understand is the glut of products on the market that apparently are aimed at people who don’t own knives.  

Case in point: McCain’s Purely Potatoes. They’re peeled, cut and frozen potatoes made for sticking in the microwave and mashing. Frozen vegetables are nothing new, and I’m sure they’re better than other “instant” mashed potatoes, but here’s what bothers me - the TV commercial starts out with the line “Who has time to make mashed potatoes?”

Let me be clear on this.  Everyone.  Everyone has time to make mashed potatoes.  It takes about 30 seconds to wash and cut a potato… and everything that comes after takes exactly the same amount of effort as the frozen variety.  Add to this that these things cost about twice as much as just buying a raw potato, and it highlights exactly what’s wrong with food marketing today.

Companies launch focus groups, customers say they’re busy, so companies echo back that their customer is busy, and pretty soon, you’ve got a wall of marketing messages INSISTING that you’re TOO BUSY TO COOK.  Fortunately, food marketers are there with simple solutions like pre-cut potatoes, or pre-diced onions.  Now all they need to do is keep convincing us of how busy we are, so they can continue to make our lives easier.

Toss seeded tomatoes with a chiffonade of basil, olive oil, balsamic and garlic.  Bake for 30 - 40 minutes at 300 degrees F, and deglaze the pan with a dry red wine.  Mash it up and serve over fresh pasta.

You really need fresh ripe tomatoes for this, or it will be mealy and unpleasant at best.

1. Salt dissolves in water.
2. Salt does not dissolve in oil.
3. Oil does not dissolve in water.
4. Water boils at 100 C (212 F).
5. Generally foods contain mostly water (or another fluid).
6. Foods without water or fluid are tough.
7. Some proteins (in eggs, meat, fish) coagulate.
8. Collagen dissolves in water at temperatures higher than 55 C (131 F).
9. Dishes are dispersed systems (combinations of gas, liquid or solid ingredients transformed by cooking).
10. Some chemical processes - such as the Maillard Reaction - generate new flavours.

From an interview with Herve This in the Globe and Mail.

There’s something I should come clean about.  I’m obsessive about certain things, and if it gets in my brain, it itches like a mosquito bite until I perfect it, or at least until I get distracted by my next obsession.

Right now, that obsession is eggs.  Not because I particularly like eggs (I like them fine, but this isn’t about cravings) but because they’re deceptively difficult.  Anyone can make them, but only a truly skilled cook can make them well.  A pure white ring surrounding an unbroken yolk is a thing of beauty.

I’m far from perfecting the craft, but I have figured out a few little tricks that bring that perfection a little closer:

1. High quality non-stick pan.  To feed my obsession, I have invested in one that is roughly equivalent to a car payment. Yeah… I know.
2. Low heat.  On my stove, that means setting the burner between 1 and 2.  
3. Clarified butter.  Milk solids brown the edges of the egg.  Clarified butter gives the flavour of butter without the milk solids.
4. White pepper.  Eggs should be seasoned with salt and pepper, but black flecks ruins that whole “perfection” thing we’re going for.
5. Fresh Eggs.  This is a hard one, unless you have access to a chicken.  But the fresher the egg, the higher the proportion of thick white, which prevents the egg from becoming runny and thin.

The final consideration is the flip.  Sunny side up is no problem, but over easy is another animal altogether.  Sure, you can use a spatula, but you get extra style points for flipping two eggs in the pan.  And really, looking good is half the battle.