A weekend of food writing

I stopped off at one of these big-chain bookstores this weekend while I was running errands.  It’s worth stopping by the food writing sales tables at these big stores, because you can almost always find something good.  I particularly find this the case in the States, where British food writers seem to fly under the radar, Jamie Oliver notably excepted.

This store was having a clearout and I managed to secure my first Anne Willan cookbook (slightly damaged, $6), a rustic French cookbook ($2), and a book titled “Sweet Quartet: Eggs, Almonds, Butter, and Sugar” ($5).  The total original price for the three would have been  roughly $75.  I love a bargain! 

That done, I happily went home and postponed (yet again) my class readings on knowledge management and planning for a term paper.

I read “Sweet Quartet” first because the cover was so promising.  It takes each of the four named ingredients and in turn discusses how it is produced, some history, and then provides a few recipes that highlight that ingredient.  To be honest, it was a little disappointing.  Interesting but not gripping.  Her recipe for croquembouche is the first I’ve seen, though, that looks doable.

A quick update on my breadmaking.  I wondered if I should try a new recipe since the first attempt last weekend had been so successful, but decided to keep on with my plan.  I was getting an inflated sense of my abilities, I suppose, but that was quickly fixed when this loaf did not rise in the oven as it should have.  After some analysis, I think the temperature of the oven was too high when I put in the loaf.  An eggplant had been roasting in there just before and it seems I did not let the oven cool down enough.  You know, I really had no idea that breadmaking was so involved.  So few ingredients, but so many touch points at which skill is needed.

Loss of Appetite

I’ve been thinking about what makes us lose our appetites. Last night I was at a get-together at someone’s house and a fellow grad student started talking about an incident in her intellectual freedom class. The professor had them break into discussion groups and then send a spokesperson to the front to say what they thought about certain statements about intellectual freedom. As the first person went up and opened his mouth to speak, the professor jumped in with, “First, let me tell you what I want to hear you say. I want to hear that….” 10 minutes later she was done, and the student was left with nothing to say except “We said what she said”.

I think the irony of all this is very apparent. I was so annoyed by this (I’ve had a bit of frustration with this professor myself), I didn’t feel like eating any more.

I wonder if any extreme emotion closes off pathways in the brain that signal the need to eat? After all, when we are ecstatic, mourning, furious, joyful, in the very intense moments of those emotional states I don’t think we eat. It’s when the intensity subsides that you feel the need to fuel your body again.

What does this mean, then, for a home cook? I think for me the lesson is that food is most appreciated when we are calm, tranquil, and emotionally stable– therefore there is a need to build that peaceful environment into our homes, especially because this can speak to other things beyond food. That is probably obvious to you, but this is a real insight for me. It’s only with serenity that we can fully notice and savour food (and life) at its best.

Is this why fast food is so popular in North America? Inferior food passes notice when you are rushed and tense. And soon inferior food becomes good to you, because you are not incorporating anything in your weekly diet that is demonstrably superior to cheap chips and hamburgers. What do you think?

Bread Breakthrough

I am very happy (and excited….is it socially sad or very cool to love cooking this much?) to report that I have finally made a loaf of bread that is completely edible, and more than that, one you could put in front of people without shame!!

I hauled my bread book back to school after Christmas after trying two other basic bread recipes that were disastrous.  Maybe you know it– “Bread” by Ursula Ferrigno and Eric Treuille?  Anyway, it starts off with picture essays on starters, kneading, proofing etc. so that was very useful for me.  I decided to take the basic beginner recipe for “pain ordinaire” and make it over and over again until I really got the handling of the dough down.  So I was completely overcome when I had it turn out well the first time around.

I’m still going to make it several times more before I branch out into other recipes.  I think it’s a lot like pastry– you need to do it over and over again to get it down.  The kneading and moisture aspects are still eluding me.  I wish there was some expert I could watch do the whole process. 

There is an emotional component to all this.  I remember my paternal grandfather making bread on a regular basis.   He would use leftovers from the fridge when making the dough, just throwing in whatever was knocking around.  I remember as a six year old being completely grossed out by the fact that he was using cold cooked carrots in the bread!  I have to laugh now, but at the same time I feel sorry that I would never believe the adults who assured me the bread was good, and never tried it myself.   So as I made this loaf I was thinking about him.  

I suppose that’s one of the many reasons I love cooking and baking and feeding people so much.  Family memories and legacies are so often tied up with food.  It’s an obvious connection when you think about how when we cook for each other we aren’t just nourishing bodies but giving love and affection as well.

Food & Cold Weather

Yesterday’s blizzard has been capped by today’s -28 degrees celcius.  Trying to eat healthily in such temperatures is almost impossible.  For one thing, I am combating my natural sloth, indolence, and prediliction for fats; add to that the atavistic need to layer on body fat to combat the cold, and I’m done for.  I joined friends for lunch yesterday at Earl’s (not great, but better than the campus cafeteria and there we had a prime view of people falling down as they crossed the road, skidding on the ice) and I knew I really should have some salad.  And yet I chose a bacon and clam chowder.  It was impossible to do anything else.

I have no interesting cooking to report from the past three days.   I’ve been starting school and work again, and as I once more reunite with my squalid student apartment and the pathetic kitchen that is mine, I’ve had no energy to cook.  Does the cycle go– depressed, then don’t cook, or– don’t cook, then depressed?  At any rate, I’ve promised myself that once I’m done work today I will cook one of my favorite dishes.  Some friends of mine from China introduced me to this.

Stir fry chunks of celery (mouthful size) cut on a 45 degree angle. After a couple minutes, add chunks of pineapple, cut to about the same size.  You want a ratio of 3 parts celery to 2 parts pineapple.  Let that cook for 3-4 minutes, until the celery and pineapple start to look a bit brown, then quickly add a handful of cashews and a splash of soy sauce for seasoning. Stir and cook another minute until you see brown spots appear on the cashews, and then it’s done.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it has two great virtues.  First, the combination of crisp celery, juicy pineapple, and meaty nuts give a very satisfying range of textures as you eat, with the three different crunches in the mouth.  Secondly, cooking the pineapple in this way makes even the most dry and juiceless trucked-in import succulent.

A new year, a new resolution to write

I started this blog for a class assignment and then dropped it, but I keep thinking about it.  After all, I obsess over food and love it and love to work with it, and it would be pretty cool to have a record of all the fun things I do with food.  So I’m setting a goal to write on Mondays and Thursdays (while sitting at work, haha).

Food highlights at Christmas included taking my sister and her kids for dim sum in the International District in Seattle.  Anyone ever been to the Purple Dot Cafe?  We had a great experience there.  My one 8 year old nephew that loves to try new food kept saying things like, “Can we try some of those?” and “I really like this!”.  The other nephew (he’s 10) kept his head on the table, overcome with depression and despair.  He kept saying, “Can we order some sweet and sour pork?” until his mother succumbed.  

The second highlight was to start teaching the 8 year old how to make a roux.  He had thought all macaroni and cheese came from a box, so we made it properly with a cheese sauce.  It was really fun but I think he now believes that a roux includes uttering the mantra “crap, crap, crap…..ohbloodyhell” as you frantically whisk.  Who knows, he’s probably right.  I’ve never been able to produce a good roux without it.

Food reading included the book “Julie and Julia”.  I was suckered in by the title, premise, reviews, and cover, and didn’t do an interior scan before buying.  Big mistake.  It was like Judy Blume met “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, and I was really disappointed.  The food was the major thing, and I didn’t want to hear her pubescent experiences (hello–are you trying to whet my appetite or kill it?).

Great food reading was one of my Christmas gifts: “Vegetables” by Sophie Grigson.   Love it! I’m only halfway though but I want to make every dish in there and I am totally inspired to start cooking vegetables in more effective and savoury ways.  I’ve been wanting it for a while but they only publish it in the UK, so I was thrilled to discover that my sister had tracked it down on a trip to London and packed it back home for me.  How do you know you’re loved?  When your family and friends take note of obscure books, find and buy them when they have better things to do, and then haul them back in their luggage….